Annotation of html5/workers/Overview.html, revision 1.128

1.117     ihickson    1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><!-- when publishing, change bits marked ZZZ --><html lang="en-US-x-Hixie"><title>Web Workers</title><style type="text/css">
1.82      ihickson    2:    pre { margin-left: 2em; white-space: pre-wrap; }
                      3:    h2 { margin: 3em 0 1em 0; }
                      4:    h3 { margin: 2.5em 0 1em 0; }
                      5:    h4 { margin: 2.5em 0 0.75em 0; }
                      6:    h5, h6 { margin: 2.5em 0 1em; }
                      7:    h1 + h2, h1 + h2 + h2 { margin: 0.75em 0 0.75em; }
                      8:    h2 + h3, h3 + h4, h4 + h5, h5 + h6 { margin-top: 0.5em; }
                      9:    p { margin: 1em 0; }
                     10:    hr:not(.top) { display: block; background: none; border: none; padding: 0; margin: 2em 0; height: auto; }
                     11:    dl, dd { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; }
                     12:    dt { margin-top: 0.75em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; clear: left; }
                     13:    dt + dt { margin-top: 0; }
                     14:    dd dt { margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0; }
                     15:    dd p { margin-top: 0; }
                     16:    dd dl + p { margin-top: 1em; }
                     17:    dd table + p { margin-top: 1em; }
                     18:    p + * > li, dd li { margin: 1em 0; }
                     19:    dt, dfn { font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; }
                     20:    dt dfn { font-style: italic; }
                     21:    pre, code { font-size: inherit; font-family: monospace; font-variant: normal; }
                     22:    pre strong { color: black; font: inherit; font-weight: bold; background: yellow; }
                     23:    pre em { font-weight: bolder; font-style: normal; }
1.89      ihickson   24:    @media screen { code { color: orangered; } code :link, code :visited { color: inherit; } }
1.82      ihickson   25:    var sub { vertical-align: bottom; font-size: smaller; position: relative; top: 0.1em; }
                     26:    table { border-collapse: collapse; border-style: hidden hidden none hidden; }
                     27:    table thead { border-bottom: solid; }
                     28:    table tbody th:first-child { border-left: solid; }
                     29:    table td, table th { border-left: solid; border-right: solid; border-bottom: solid thin; vertical-align: top; padding: 0.2em; }
                     30:    blockquote { margin: 0 0 0 2em; border: 0; padding: 0; font-style: italic; }
                     31: 
                     32:    .bad, .bad *:not(.XXX) { color: gray; border-color: gray; background: transparent; }
                     33:    .matrix, .matrix td { border: none; text-align: right; }
                     34:    .matrix { margin-left: 2em; }
                     35:    .dice-example { border-collapse: collapse; border-style: hidden solid solid hidden; border-width: thin; margin-left: 3em; }
                     36:    .dice-example caption { width: 30em; font-size: smaller; font-style: italic; padding: 0.75em 0; text-align: left; }
                     37:    .dice-example td, .dice-example th { border: solid thin; width: 1.35em; height: 1.05em; text-align: center; padding: 0; }
                     38:    .applies th > * { display: block; white-space: nowrap; }
                     39:    .applies thead code { display: block; }
                     40:    .applies td { text-align: center; }
                     41:    .applies .yes { background: yellow; }
                     42: 
                     43:    .toc dfn, h1 dfn, h2 dfn, h3 dfn, h4 dfn, h5 dfn, h6 dfn { font: inherit; }
                     44:    img.extra { float: right; }
                     45:    pre.idl { border: solid thin; background: #EEEEEE; color: black; padding: 0.5em 1em; }
                     46:    pre.idl :link, pre.idl :visited { color: inherit; background: transparent; }
                     47:    pre.css { border: solid thin; background: #FFFFEE; color: black; padding: 0.5em 1em; }
                     48:    pre.css:first-line { color: #AAAA50; }
                     49:    dl.domintro { color: green; margin: 2em 0 2em 2em; padding: 0.5em 1em; border: none; background: #EEFFEE; }
                     50:    hr + dl.domintro, div.impl + dl.domintro { margin-top: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }
                     51:    dl.domintro dt, dl.domintro dt * { color: black; text-decoration: none; }
                     52:    dl.domintro dd { margin: 0.5em 0 1em 2em; padding: 0; }
                     53:    dl.domintro dd p { margin: 0.5em 0; }
                     54:    dl.switch { padding-left: 2em; }
                     55:    dl.switch > dt { text-indent: -1.5em; }
                     56:    dl.switch > dt:before { content: '\21AA'; padding: 0 0.5em 0 0; display: inline-block; width: 1em; text-align: right; line-height: 0.5em; }
1.121     ihickson   57:    dl.triple { padding: 0 0 0 1em; }
                     58:    dl.triple dt, dl.triple dd { margin: 0; display: inline }
                     59:    dl.triple dt:after { content: ':'; }
                     60:    dl.triple dd:after { content: '\A'; white-space: pre; }
1.82      ihickson   61:    .diff-old { text-decoration: line-through; color: silver; background: transparent; }
                     62:    .diff-chg, .diff-new { text-decoration: underline; color: green; background: transparent; }
                     63:    a .diff-new { border-bottom: 1px blue solid; }
                     64: 
                     65:    h2 { page-break-before: always; }
                     66:    h1 + h2, hr + h2.no-toc { page-break-before: auto; }
                     67: 
1.87      ihickson   68:    p > span:not([title=""]):not([class="XXX"]):not([class="impl"]), li > span:not([title=""]):not([class="XXX"]):not([class="impl"]) { border-bottom: solid #9999CC; }
1.82      ihickson   69: 
                     70:    div.head { margin: 0 0 1em; padding: 1em 0 0 0; }
                     71:    div.head p { margin: 0; }
                     72:    div.head h1 { margin: 0; }
                     73:    div.head .logo { float: right; margin: 0 1em; }
                     74:    div.head .logo img { border: none } /* remove border from top image */
                     75:    div.head dl { margin: 1em 0; }
                     76:    p.copyright { font-size: x-small; font-style: oblique; margin: 0; }
                     77: 
                     78:    body > .toc > li { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; }
                     79:    body > .toc.brief > li { margin-top: 0.35em; margin-bottom: 0.35em; }
                     80:    body > .toc > li > * { margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
                     81:    body > .toc > li > * > li > * { margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
                     82:    .toc, .toc li { list-style: none; }
                     83: 
                     84:    .brief { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.1; }
                     85:    .brief li { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
                     86:    .brief li p { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
                     87: 
                     88:    .XXX { color: #E50000; background: white; border: solid red; padding: 0.5em; margin: 1em 0; }
                     89:    .XXX > :first-child { margin-top: 0; }
                     90:    p .XXX { line-height: 3em; }
                     91:    .note { color: green; background: transparent; font-family: sans-serif; }
                     92:    .warning { color: red; background: transparent; }
                     93:    .note, .warning { font-weight: bolder; font-style: italic; }
                     94:    p.note, div.note { padding: 0.5em 2em; }
                     95:    span.note { padding: 0 2em; }
                     96:    .note p:first-child, .warning p:first-child { margin-top: 0; }
                     97:    .note p:last-child, .warning p:last-child { margin-bottom: 0; }
                     98:    .warning:before { font-style: normal; }
                     99:    p.note:before { content: 'Note: '; }
                    100:    p.warning:before { content: '\26A0 Warning! '; }
                    101: 
                    102:    .bookkeeping:before { display: block; content: 'Bookkeeping details'; font-weight: bolder; font-style: italic; }
                    103:    .bookkeeping { font-size: 0.8em; margin: 2em 0; }
                    104:    .bookkeeping p { margin: 0.5em 2em; display: list-item; list-style: square; }
                    105: 
                    106:    h4 { position: relative; z-index: 3; }
                    107:    h4 + .element, h4 + div + .element { margin-top: -2.5em; padding-top: 2em; }
                    108:    .element {
1.88      ihickson  109:      background: #EEEEFF;
1.82      ihickson  110:      color: black;
                    111:      margin: 0 0 1em 0.15em;
                    112:      padding: 0 1em 0.25em 0.75em;
1.88      ihickson  113:      border-left: solid #9999FF 0.25em;
1.82      ihickson  114:      position: relative;
                    115:      z-index: 1;
                    116:    }
                    117:    .element:before {
                    118:      position: absolute;
                    119:      z-index: 2;
                    120:      top: 0;
                    121:      left: -1.15em;
                    122:      height: 2em;
                    123:      width: 0.9em;
1.88      ihickson  124:      background: #EEEEFF;
1.82      ihickson  125:      content: ' ';
                    126:      border-style: none none solid solid;
1.88      ihickson  127:      border-color: #9999FF;
1.82      ihickson  128:      border-width: 0.25em;
                    129:    }
                    130: 
                    131:    .example {
                    132:      display: block;
                    133:      color: #222222;
                    134:      background: #FCFCFC;
                    135:      border-left: double;
                    136:      margin-left: 2em;
                    137:      padding-left: 1em;
                    138:    }
                    139: 
                    140:    .tall-and-narrow {
                    141:      font-size: 0.6em;
                    142:      column-width: 25em;
                    143:      column-gap: 1em;
                    144:      -moz-column-width: 25em;
                    145:      -moz-column-gap: 1em;
                    146:      -webkit-column-width: 25em;
                    147:      -webkit-column-gap: 1em;
                    148:    }
1.117     ihickson  149:   </style><link href="http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/W3C-ED" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"><!-- ZZZ ED vs WD --><div class="head">
1.115     ihickson  150:    <p><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img alt="W3C" height="48" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home" width="72"></a></p>
1.54      ihickson  151:    <h1>Web Workers</h1>
1.109     ihickson  152:    <!--ZZZ:-->
1.117     ihickson  153:    <!--<h2 class="no-num no-toc">W3C Working Draft 23 April 2009</h2>-->
1.128   ! ihickson  154:    <h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="editor-s-draft-date-1-january-1970">Editor's Draft 11 June 2009</h2>
1.109     ihickson  155:    <!--:ZZZ-->
1.117     ihickson  156:    <dl><!-- ZZZ: update the month/day (twice), (un)comment out
                    157:     <dt>This Version:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  158:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/</a></dd>
1.117     ihickson  159:  :ZZZ --><dt>Latest Published Version:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  160:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/workers/">http://www.w3.org/TR/workers/</a></dd>
1.109     ihickson  161:     <dt>Latest Editor's Draft:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  162:     <dd><a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/">http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/</a></dd>
1.117     ihickson  163: <!-- ZZZ: add the new version after it has shipped-->
1.2       ihickson  164:     <dt>Previous Versions:</dt>
1.113     ihickson  165:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/</a>
1.117     ihickson  166: <!-- :ZZZ -->
1.81      ihickson  167:     <dt>Editors:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  168:     <dd><a href="mailto:ian@hixie.ch">Ian Hickson</a>, Google, Inc.</dd>
                    169:    </dl><p class="copyright"><a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a>
                    170:    &copy; 2009 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr title="World Wide
                    171:    Web Consortium">W3C</abbr></a><sup>&reg;</sup> (<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><abbr title="Massachusetts
                    172:    Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr></a>, <a href="http://www.ercim.org/"><abbr title="European Research
                    173:    Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</abbr></a>, <a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C
                    174:    <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
                    175:    <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>
                    176:    and <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document
1.81      ihickson  177:    use</a> rules apply.</p>
1.115     ihickson  178:   </div><hr class="top"><h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="abstract">Abstract</h2><p>This specification defines an API that allows Web application
1.81      ihickson  179:   authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to
                    180:   their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with
1.115     ihickson  181:   message-passing as the coordination mechanism.<h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="status-of-this-document">Status of this document</h2><!-- intro boilerplate (required) --><p><em>This section describes the status of this document at the
1.81      ihickson  182:   time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this
                    183:   document. A list of current W3C publications and the most recently
                    184:   formally published revision of this technical report can be found in
1.115     ihickson  185:   the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/">W3C technical reports index</a>
1.116     ihickson  186:   at http://www.w3.org/TR/.</em></p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- XXX this section will be moved back to just below the copyright
                    187:   notice in the header by October 2009 unless the spec as a whole has
                    188:   been transitioned to a more permissive license by that time. --><!-- XXX when moving this text, add: class="alt copyright" --><p>The <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-workers/current-work/">WHATWG
                    189:   version</a> of this specification is available under a license that
                    190:   permits reuse of the specification text.</p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- where to send feedback (required) --><p>If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send
1.115     ihickson  191:   them to <a href="mailto:public-webapps@w3.org">public-webapps@w3.org</a>
1.90      ihickson  192:   (<a href="mailto:public-webapps-request@w3.org?subject=subscribe">subscribe</a>,
1.115     ihickson  193:   <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/">archives</a>)
1.81      ihickson  194: 
                    195:   <!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST -->  
1.115     ihickson  196:   or <a href="mailto:whatwg@whatwg.org">whatwg@whatwg.org</a> (<a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org">subscribe</a>,
                    197:   <a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/">archives</a>).
1.110     ihickson  198:   <!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING SENTENCE TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST -->
1.1       ihickson  199: 
1.81      ihickson  200:   All feedback is welcome.</p><!-- stability (required) --><p>Implementors should be aware that this specification is not
                    201:   stable. <strong>Implementors who are not taking part in the
                    202:   discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from
                    203:   under them in incompatible ways.</strong> Vendors interested in
                    204:   implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the
                    205:   Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned
                    206:   mailing lists and take part in the discussions.</p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- version history or list of changes (required) --><p>The latest stable version of the editor's draft of this
1.115     ihickson  207:   specification is always available on <a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/Overview.html">the W3C CVS
                    208:   server</a> and in the <a href="http://svn.whatwg.org/webworkers/">WHATWG Subversion
1.81      ihickson  209:   repository</a>. The latest editor's working copy (which may contain
1.115     ihickson  210:   unfinished text in the process of being prepared) is available <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-workers/current-work/">on the
1.81      ihickson  211:   WHATWG site</a>. Detailed change history can be obtained from the
1.115     ihickson  212:   following locations:</p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING LIST TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><ul><li>Twitter messages (non-editorial changes only): <a href="http://twitter.com/WHATWG">http://twitter.com/WHATWG</a></li>
                    213:    <li>Interactive Web interface: <a href="http://html5.org/tools/web-workers-tracker">http://html5.org/tools/web-workers-tracker</a></li>
                    214:    <li>Commit-Watchers mailing list: <a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/commit-watchers-whatwg.org">http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/commit-watchers-whatwg.org</a></li>
                    215:    <li>Subversion interface: <a href="http://svn.whatwg.org/webworkers/">http://svn.whatwg.org/webworkers/</a></li>
                    216:    <li>CVS log: <a href="http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/workers/Overview.html">http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/workers/Overview.html</a></li>
                    217:   </ul><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING LIST TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- status of document, group responsible (required) --><p>The W3C <a href="http://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/">Web Apps
1.81      ihickson  218:   Working Group</a> is the W3C working group responsible for this
                    219:   specification's progress along the W3C Recommendation track.
                    220:   <!--ZZZ:-->
1.117     ihickson  221:   <!--This specification is the 23 April 2009 Working Draft.-->
1.128   ! ihickson  222:   This specification is the 11 June 2009 Editor's Draft.
1.81      ihickson  223:   <!--:ZZZ-->
1.115     ihickson  224:   </p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- relationship to other work (required) --><p>This specification is also being produced by the <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/">WHATWG</a>. The two specifications are
1.81      ihickson  225:   identical from the table of contents onwards.</p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- context and rationale (required) --><p>This specification is intended to specify a part of the Web
                    226:   platform closely related to HTML5. It is defined in a separate
1.115     ihickson  227:   document primarily to ease the cognitive load on reviewers.</p><!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST --><!-- required patent boilerplate --><p>This document was produced by a group operating under the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">5
                    228:   February 2004 W3C Patent Policy</a>. W3C maintains a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/42538/status" rel="disclosure">public list of
1.81      ihickson  229:   any patent disclosures</a> made in connection with the deliverables
                    230:   of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a
                    231:   patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the
1.115     ihickson  232:   individual believes contains <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#def-essential">Essential
                    233:   Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#sec-Disclosure">section
                    234:   6 of the W3C Patent Policy</a>.<h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="contents">Table of contents</h2>
1.81      ihickson  235: <!--begin-toc-->
1.115     ihickson  236: <ol class="toc">
                    237:  <li><a href="#introduction"><span class="secno">1 </span>Introduction</a>
1.81      ihickson  238:   <ol>
1.115     ihickson  239:    <li><a href="#scope"><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Scope</a></li>
                    240:    <li><a href="#tutorial"><span class="secno">1.2 </span>Tutorial</a>
1.81      ihickson  241:     <ol>
1.115     ihickson  242:      <li><a href="#a-background-number-crunching-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.1 </span>A background number-crunching worker</a></li>
                    243:      <li><a href="#a-worker-for-updating-a-client-side-database"><span class="secno">1.2.2 </span>A worker for updating a client-side database</a></li>
                    244:      <li><a href="#worker-used-for-background-i-o"><span class="secno">1.2.3 </span>Worker used for background I/O</a></li>
                    245:      <li><a href="#shared-workers"><span class="secno">1.2.4 </span>Shared workers</a></li>
                    246:      <li><a href="#delegation"><span class="secno">1.2.5 </span>Delegation</a></li>
                    247:      <li><a href="#providing-libraries"><span class="secno">1.2.6 </span>Providing libraries</a></ol></ol></li>
                    248:  <li><a href="#conformance-requirements"><span class="secno">2 </span>Conformance requirements</a>
1.82      ihickson  249:   <ol>
1.115     ihickson  250:    <li><a href="#dependencies"><span class="secno">2.1 </span>Dependencies</a></ol></li>
                    251:  <li><a href="#terminology"><span class="secno">3 </span>Terminology</a></li>
                    252:  <li><a href="#infrastructure"><span class="secno">4 </span>Infrastructure</a>
1.81      ihickson  253:   <ol>
1.115     ihickson  254:    <li><a href="#the-global-scope"><span class="secno">4.1 </span>The global scope</a>
1.81      ihickson  255:     <ol>
1.115     ihickson  256:      <li><a href="#the-workerglobalscope-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.1.1 </span>The <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> abstract interface</a></li>
                    257:      <li><a href="#dedicated-workers-and-the-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.1.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code>DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</code> interface</a></li>
                    258:      <li><a href="#shared-workers-and-the-sharedworkerglobalscope-inteface"><span class="secno">4.1.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code>SharedWorkerGlobalScope</code> inteface</a></ol></li>
                    259:    <li><a href="#base-urls-and-origins-of-workers"><span class="secno">4.2 </span>Base URLs and origins of workers</a></li>
                    260:    <li><a href="#decoding-scripts"><span class="secno">4.3 </span>Decoding scripts</a></li>
                    261:    <li><a href="#the-event-loop"><span class="secno">4.4 </span>The event loop</a></li>
1.124     ihickson  262:    <li><a href="#the-worker-s-lifetime"><span class="secno">4.5 </span>The worker's lifetime</a></li>
1.115     ihickson  263:    <li><a href="#processing-model"><span class="secno">4.6 </span>Processing model</a></li>
                    264:    <li><a href="#runtime-script-errors"><span class="secno">4.7 </span>Runtime script errors</a></li>
                    265:    <li><a href="#creating-workers"><span class="secno">4.8 </span>Creating workers</a>
1.81      ihickson  266:     <ol>
1.115     ihickson  267:      <li><a href="#the-abstractworker-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.1 </span>The <code>AbstractWorker</code> abstract interface</a></li>
                    268:      <li><a href="#dedicated-workers-and-the-worker-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code>Worker</code> interface</a></li>
                    269:      <li><a href="#shared-workers-and-the-sharedworker-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code>SharedWorker</code> interface</a></ol></ol></li>
                    270:  <li><a href="#apis-available-to-workers"><span class="secno">5 </span>APIs available to workers</a>
1.81      ihickson  271:   <ol>
1.115     ihickson  272:    <li><a href="#importing-scripts-and-libraries"><span class="secno">5.1 </span>Importing scripts and libraries</a></li>
                    273:    <li><a href="#the-navigator-object"><span class="secno">5.2 </span>The <code title="worker-Navigator">Navigator</code> object</a></li>
                    274:    <li><a href="#apis-defined-in-other-specifications"><span class="secno">5.3 </span>APIs defined in other specifications</a></li>
                    275:    <li><a href="#interface-objects-and-constructors"><span class="secno">5.4 </span>Interface objects and constructors</a></li>
                    276:    <li><a href="#worker-locations"><span class="secno">5.5 </span>Worker locations</a></ol></li>
                    277:  <li><a class="no-num" href="#references">References</a></li>
                    278:  <li><a class="no-num" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></ol>
                    279: <!--end-toc--><hr><h2 id="introduction"><span class="secno">1 </span>Introduction</h2><h3 id="scope"><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Scope</h3><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>This specification defines an API for running scripts in the
1.81      ihickson  280:   background independently of any user interface scripts.<p>This allows for long-running scripts that are not interrupted by
                    281:   scripts that respond to clicks or other user interactions, and
                    282:   allows long tasks to be executed without yielding to keep the page
                    283:   responsive.<p>Workers (as these background scripts are called herein) are
                    284:   relatively heavy-weight, and are not intended to be used in large
                    285:   numbers. For example, it would be inappropriate to launch one worker
                    286:   for each pixel of a four megapixel image. The examples below show
                    287:   some appropriate uses of workers.<p>Generally, workers are expected to be long-lived, have a high
1.115     ihickson  288:   start-up performance cost, and a high per-instance memory cost.<h3 id="tutorial"><span class="secno">1.2 </span>Tutorial</h3><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>There are a variety of uses that workers can be put to. The
                    289:   following subsections show various examples of this use.<h4 id="a-background-number-crunching-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.1 </span>A background number-crunching worker</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>The simplest use of workers is for performing a computationally
1.81      ihickson  290:   expensive task without interrupting the user interface.<p>In this example, the main document spawns a worker to
                    291:   (na&iuml;vely) compute prime numbers, and progressively displays the
                    292:   most recently found prime number.<p>The main page is as follows:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    293: &lt;html&gt;
                    294:  &lt;head&gt;
                    295:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: One-core computation&lt;/title&gt;
                    296:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    297:  &lt;body&gt;
                    298:   &lt;p&gt;The highest prime number discovered so far is: &lt;output id="result"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    299:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  300:    var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
                    301:    worker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  302:      document.getElementById('result').textContent = event.data;
1.29      ihickson  303:    };
1.81      ihickson  304:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    305:  &lt;/body&gt;
1.115     ihickson  306: &lt;/html&gt;</pre><p>The <code title="dom-Worker"><a href="#dom-worker">Worker()</a></code> constructor call
                    307:   creates a worker and returns a <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object
1.81      ihickson  308:   representing that worker, which is used to communicate with the
1.115     ihickson  309:   worker. That object's <code title="handler-Worker-onmessage"><a href="#handler-worker-onmessage">onmessage</a></code> event handler
1.81      ihickson  310:   attribute allows the code to receive messages from the worker.<p>The worker itself is as follows:<pre>var n = 1;
1.29      ihickson  311: search: while (true) {
                    312:   n += 1;
                    313:   for (var i = 2; i &lt;= Math.sqrt(n); i += 1)
                    314:     if (n % i == 0)
                    315:      continue search;
                    316:   // found a prime!
1.50      ihickson  317:   postMessage(n);
1.105     ihickson  318: }</pre><p>The bulk of this code is simply an unoptimized search for a prime
1.115     ihickson  319:   number. To send a message back to the page, the <code title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage"><a href="#dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage">postMessage()</a></code>
                    320:   method is used to post a message when a prime is found.<p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/primes/page.html">View this example online</a>.<h4 id="a-worker-for-updating-a-client-side-database"><span class="secno">1.2.2 </span>A worker for updating a client-side database</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>In this example, the main document spawns a worker whose only
1.81      ihickson  321:   task is to listen for notifications from the server, and, when
                    322:   appropriate, either add or remove data from the client-side
                    323:   database.<p>Since no communication occurs between the worker and the main
                    324:   page, the main page can start the worker by just doing:<pre>&lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  325:  new Worker('worker.js');
1.81      ihickson  326: &lt;/script&gt;</pre><p>The worker itself is as follows:<pre>var server = new WebSocket('ws://whatwg.org/database');
1.42      ihickson  327: var database = openDatabase('demobase', '1.0', 'Demo Database', 10240);
1.31      ihickson  328: server.onmessage = function (event) {
                    329:   // data is in the format "command key value"
1.54      ihickson  330:   var data = event.data.split(' ');
1.31      ihickson  331:   switch (data[0]) {
                    332:     case '+':
                    333:      database.transaction(function(tx) {
                    334:        tx.executeSql('INSERT INTO pairs (key, value) VALUES (?, ?)', data[1], data[2]);
                    335:      });
                    336:     case '-':
                    337:      database.transaction(function(tx) {
                    338:        tx.executeSql('DELETE FROM pairs WHERE key=? AND value=?', data[1], data[2]);
                    339:      });
                    340:   }
1.81      ihickson  341: };</pre><p>This connects to the server using the <code>WebSocket</code>
                    342:   mechanism and opens the local database (which, we presume, has been
                    343:   created earlier). The worker then just listens for messages from the
                    344:   server and acts on them as appropriate, forever (or until the main
1.115     ihickson  345:   page is closed).<p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/database-updater/page.html">View
1.81      ihickson  346:   this example online</a>. (This example will not actually function,
                    347:   since the server does not actually exist and the database is not
1.115     ihickson  348:   created by this sample code.)<h4 id="worker-used-for-background-i-o"><span class="secno">1.2.3 </span>Worker used for background I/O</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>In this example, the main document uses two workers, one for
1.81      ihickson  349:   fetching stock updates for at regular intervals, and one for
                    350:   fetching performing search queries that the user requests.<p>The main page is as follows:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    351: &lt;html&gt;
                    352:  &lt;head&gt;
                    353:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: Stock ticker&lt;/title&gt;
                    354:   &lt;script&gt;
1.33      ihickson  355:    // TICKER
                    356:    var symbol = 'GOOG'; // default symbol to watch
1.50      ihickson  357:    var ticker = new Worker('ticker.js');
1.33      ihickson  358: 
                    359:    // SEARCHER
1.50      ihickson  360:    var searcher = new Worker('searcher.js');
1.33      ihickson  361:    function search(query) {
1.50      ihickson  362:      searcher.postMessage(query);
1.33      ihickson  363:    }
                    364: 
                    365:    // SYMBOL SELECTION UI
                    366:    function select(newSymbol) {
                    367:      symbol = newSymbol;
1.50      ihickson  368:      ticker.postMessage(symbol);
1.33      ihickson  369:    }
1.81      ihickson  370:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    371:  &lt;/head&gt;
1.122     ihickson  372:  &lt;body onload="search('')"&gt;
1.81      ihickson  373:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;output id="symbol"&gt;&lt;/output&gt; &lt;output id="value"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    374:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  375:    ticker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  376:      var data = event.data.split(' ');
1.33      ihickson  377:      document.getElementById('symbol').textContent = data[0];
                    378:      document.getElementById('value').textContent = data[1];
                    379:    };
1.50      ihickson  380:    ticker.postMessage(symbol);
1.81      ihickson  381:   &lt;/script&gt;
1.122     ihickson  382:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;label&gt;Search: &lt;input type="text" autofocus oninput="search(this.value)"&gt;&lt;/label&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1.81      ihickson  383:   &lt;ul id="results"&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
                    384:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  385:    searcher.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  386:      var data = event.data.split(' ');
1.33      ihickson  387:      var results = document.getElementById('results');
                    388:      while (results.hasChildNodes()) // clear previous results
                    389:        results.removeChild(results.firstChild);
                    390:      for (var i = 0; i &lt; data.length; i += 1) {
                    391:        // add a list item with a button for each result
                    392:        var li = document.createElement('li');
                    393:        var button = document.createElement('button');
                    394:        button.value = data[i];
                    395:        button.type = 'button';
                    396:        button.onclick = function () { select(this.value); };
                    397:        button.textContent = data[i];
                    398:        li.appendChild(button);
                    399:        results.appendChild(li);
                    400:      }
                    401:    };
1.81      ihickson  402:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    403:   &lt;p&gt;(The data in this example is not real. Try searching for "Google" or "Apple".)&lt;/p&gt;
                    404:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    405: &lt;/html&gt;</pre><p>The two workers use a common library for performing the actual
                    406:   network calls. This library is as follows:<pre>function get(url) {
1.50      ihickson  407:   try {
                    408:     var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
                    409:     xhr.open('GET', url, false);
                    410:     xhr.send();
                    411:     return xhr.responseText;
                    412:   } catch (e) {
                    413:     return ''; // turn all errors into empty results
                    414:   }
1.81      ihickson  415: }</pre><p>The stock updater worker is as follows:<pre>importScripts('io.js');
1.33      ihickson  416: var timer;
                    417: var symbol;
                    418: function update() {
1.50      ihickson  419:   postMessage(symbol + ' ' + get('stock.cgi?' + symbol));
1.33      ihickson  420:   timer = setTimeout(update, 10000);
                    421: }
1.50      ihickson  422: onmessage = function (event) {
1.33      ihickson  423:   if (timer)
                    424:     clearTimeout(timer);
1.54      ihickson  425:   symbol = event.data;
1.33      ihickson  426:   update();
1.81      ihickson  427: };</pre><p>The search query worker is as follows:<pre>importScripts('io.js');
1.50      ihickson  428: onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  429:   postMessage(get('search.cgi?' + event.data));
1.115     ihickson  430: };</pre><p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/stocks/page.html">View this example online</a>.<h4 id="shared-workers"><span class="secno">1.2.4 </span>Shared workers</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>In this example, multiple windows (viewers) can be opened that
1.81      ihickson  431:   are all viewing the same map. All the windows share the same map
                    432:   information, with a single worker coordinating all the viewers. Each
                    433:   viewer can move around independently, but if they set any data on
                    434:   the map, all the viewers are updated.<p>The main page isn't interesting, it merely provides a way to open
                    435:   the viewers:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    436: &lt;html&gt;
                    437:  &lt;head&gt;
                    438:   &lt;title&gt;Workers example: Multiviewer&lt;/title&gt;
                    439:   &lt;script&gt;
1.36      ihickson  440:    function openViewer() {
                    441:      window.open('viewer.html');
                    442:    }
1.81      ihickson  443:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    444:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    445:  &lt;body&gt;
                    446:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;button type=button onclick="openViewer()"&gt;Open a new
                    447:   viewer&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    448:   &lt;p&gt;Each viewer opens in a new window. You can have as many viewers
                    449:   as you like, they all view the same data.&lt;/p&gt;
                    450:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    451: &lt;/html&gt;</pre><p>The viewer is more involved:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    452: &lt;html&gt;
                    453:  &lt;head&gt;
                    454:   &lt;title&gt;Workers example: Multiviewer viewer&lt;/title&gt;
                    455:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  456:    var worker = new SharedWorker('worker.js', 'core');
1.36      ihickson  457: 
                    458:    // CONFIGURATION
                    459:    function configure(event) {
1.54      ihickson  460:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'cfg ') return;
                    461:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
1.36      ihickson  462:      // update display to mention our name is name
                    463:      document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[0].textContent += ' ' + name;
                    464:      // no longer need this listener
1.43      ihickson  465:      worker.port.removeEventListener('message', configure, false);
1.36      ihickson  466:    }
1.53      ihickson  467:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', configure, false);
1.36      ihickson  468: 
                    469:    // MAP
                    470:    function paintMap(event) {
1.54      ihickson  471:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'map ') return;
                    472:      var data = event.data.substr(4).split(',');
1.36      ihickson  473:      // display tiles data[0] .. data[8]
                    474:      var canvas = document.getElementById('map');
                    475:      var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
                    476:      for (var y = 0; y &lt; 3; y += 1) {
                    477:        for (var x = 0; x &lt; 3; x += 1) {
                    478:          var tile = data[y * 3 + x];
                    479:          if (tile == '0')
                    480:            context.fillStyle = 'green';
                    481:          else 
                    482:            context.fillStyle = 'maroon';
                    483:          fillRect(x * 50, y * 50, 50, 50);
                    484:        }
                    485:      }
                    486:    }
1.53      ihickson  487:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', paintMap, false);
1.36      ihickson  488: 
                    489:    // PUBLIC CHAT
                    490:    function updatePublicChat(event) {
1.54      ihickson  491:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'txt ') return;
                    492:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
                    493:      var message = event.data.substr(4 + length(name) + 1);
1.81      ihickson  494:      // display "&lt;name&gt; message" in public chat
1.36      ihickson  495:      var dialog = document.getElementById('public');
                    496:      var dt = document.createElement('dt');
                    497:      dt.textContent = name;
                    498:      dialog.appendChild(dt);
                    499:      var dd = document.createElement('dd');
                    500:      dd.textContent = message;
                    501:      dialog.appendChild(dd);
                    502:    }
1.53      ihickson  503:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', updatePublicChat, false);
1.36      ihickson  504: 
                    505:    // PRIVATE CHAT
                    506:    function startPrivateChat(event) {
1.54      ihickson  507:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'msg ') return;
                    508:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
1.84      ihickson  509:      var port = event.ports[0];
1.36      ihickson  510:      // display a private chat UI
                    511:      var ul = document.getElementById('private');
                    512:      var li = document.createElement('li');
                    513:      var h3 = document.createElement('h3');
                    514:      h3.textContent = 'Private chat with ' + name;
                    515:      li.appendChild(h3);
                    516:      var dialog = document.createElement('dialog');
                    517:      var addMessage = function(name, message) {
                    518:        var dt = document.createElement('dt');
                    519:        dt.textContent = name;
                    520:        dialog.appendChild(dt);
                    521:        var dd = document.createElement('dd');
                    522:        dd.textContent = message;
                    523:        dialog.appendChild(dd);
                    524:      };
                    525:      port.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  526:        addMessage(name, event.data);
1.36      ihickson  527:      };
                    528:      li.appendChild(dialog);
                    529:      var form = document.createElement('form');
                    530:      var p = document.createElement('p');
                    531:      var input = document.createElement('input');
                    532:      input.size = 50;
                    533:      p.appendChild(input);
                    534:      p.appendChild(document.createTextNode(' '));
                    535:      var button = document.createElement('button');
                    536:      button.textContent = 'Post';
                    537:      p.appendChild(button);
                    538:      form.onsubmit = function () {
                    539:        port.postMessage(input.value);
                    540:        addMessage('me', input.value);
                    541:        input.value = '';
                    542:        return false;
                    543:      };
                    544:      form.appendChild(p);
                    545:      li.appendChild(form);
                    546:    }
1.53      ihickson  547:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', startPrivateChat, false);
1.81      ihickson  548:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    549:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    550:  &lt;body&gt;
                    551:   &lt;h1&gt;Viewer&lt;/h1&gt;
                    552:   &lt;h2&gt;Map&lt;/h2&gt;
                    553:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;canvas id="map" height=150 width=150&gt;&lt;/canvas&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    554:   &lt;p&gt;
                    555:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov left')"&gt;Left&lt;/button&gt;
                    556:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov up')"&gt;Up&lt;/button&gt;
                    557:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov down')"&gt;Down&lt;/button&gt;
                    558:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov right')"&gt;Right&lt;/button&gt;
                    559:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('set 0')"&gt;Set 0&lt;/button&gt;
                    560:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('set 1')"&gt;Set 1&lt;/button&gt;
                    561:   &lt;/p&gt;
                    562:   &lt;h2&gt;Public Chat&lt;/h2&gt;
                    563:   &lt;dialog id="public"&gt;&lt;/dialog&gt;
                    564:   &lt;form onsubmit="worker.port.postMessage('txt ' + message.value); message.value = ''; return false;"&gt;
                    565:    &lt;p&gt;
                    566:     &lt;input type="text" name="message" size="50"&gt;
                    567:     &lt;button&gt;Post&lt;/button&gt;
                    568:    &lt;/p&gt;
                    569:   &lt;/form&gt;
                    570:   &lt;h2&gt;Private Chat&lt;/h2&gt;
                    571:   &lt;ul id="private"&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
                    572:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    573: &lt;/html&gt;
                    574: </pre><p>There are several key things worth noting about the way the
                    575:   viewer is written.<p><strong>Multiple listeners</strong>. Instead of a single message
                    576:   processing function, the code here attaches multiple event
                    577:   listeners, each one performing a quick check to see if it is
                    578:   relevant for the message. In this example it doesn't make much
                    579:   difference, but if multiple authors wanted to collaborate using a
                    580:   single port to communicate with a worker, it would allow for
                    581:   independent code instead of changes having to all be made to a
                    582:   single event handling function.<p>Registering event listeners in this way also allows you to
                    583:   unregister specific listeners when you are done with them, as is
                    584:   done with the <code title="">configure()</code> method in this
                    585:   example.<p>Finally, the worker:<pre>
1.36      ihickson  586: var nextName = 0;
                    587: function getNextName() {
                    588:   // this could use more friendly names
                    589:   // but for now just return a number
                    590:   return nextName++;
                    591: }
                    592: 
                    593: var map = [
                    594:  [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
                    595:  [1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1],
                    596:  [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                    597:  [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1],
                    598:  [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                    599:  [1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1],
                    600:  [1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1],
                    601: ];
                    602: 
                    603: function wrapX(x) {
                    604:   if (x &lt; 0) return wrapX(x + map[0].length);
1.81      ihickson  605:   if (x &gt;= map[0].length) return wrapX(x - map[0].length);
1.36      ihickson  606:   return x;
                    607: }
                    608: 
                    609: function wrapY(y) {
                    610:   if (y &lt; 0) return wrapY(y + map.length);
1.81      ihickson  611:   if (y &gt;= map[0].length) return wrapY(y - map.length);
1.36      ihickson  612:   return y;
                    613: }
                    614: 
1.50      ihickson  615: function sendMapData(callback) {
1.36      ihickson  616:   var data = '';
                    617:   for (var y = viewer.y-1; y &lt;= viewer.y+1; y += 1) {
                    618:     for (var x = viewer.x-1; x &lt;= viewer.x+1; x += 1) {
                    619:       if (data != '')
                    620:         data += ',';
                    621:       data += map[y][x];
                    622:     }
                    623:   }
1.50      ihickson  624:   callback('map ' + data);
1.36      ihickson  625: }
                    626: 
                    627: var viewers = {};
                    628: onconnect = function (event) {
1.84      ihickson  629:   event.ports[0]._name = getNextName();
                    630:   event.ports[0]._data = { port: event.port, x: 0, y: 0, };
                    631:   viewers[event.ports[0]._name] = event.port._data;
                    632:   event.ports[0].postMessage('cfg ' + name);
                    633:   event.ports[0].onmessage = getMessage;
                    634:   sendMapData(event.ports[0].postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  635: };
                    636: 
                    637: function getMessage(event) {
1.54      ihickson  638:   switch (event.data.substr(0, 4)) {
1.36      ihickson  639:     case 'mov ':
1.54      ihickson  640:       var direction = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  641:       var dx = 0;
                    642:       var dy = 0;
                    643:       switch (direction) {
                    644:         case 'up': dy = -1; break;
                    645:         case 'down': dy = 1; break;
                    646:         case 'left': dx = -1; break;
                    647:         case 'right': dx = 1; break;
                    648:       }
                    649:       event.target._data.x = wrapX(event.target._data.x + dx);
                    650:       event.target._data.y = wrapY(event.target._data.y + dy);
1.50      ihickson  651:       sendMapData(event.target.postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  652:       break;
                    653:     case 'set ':
1.54      ihickson  654:       var value = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  655:       map[event.target._data.y][event.target._data.x] = value;
                    656:       for (var viewer in viewers)
1.50      ihickson  657:         sendMapData(viewers[viewer].port.postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  658:       break;
                    659:     case 'txt ':
                    660:       var name = event.target._name;
1.54      ihickson  661:       var message = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  662:       for (var viewer in viewers)
                    663:         viewers[viewer].port.postMessage('txt ' + name + ' ' + message);
                    664:       break;
                    665:     case 'msg ':
                    666:       var party1 = event._data;
1.54      ihickson  667:       var party2 = viewers[event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1)];
1.36      ihickson  668:       if (party2) {
                    669:         var channel = new MessageChannel();
1.84      ihickson  670:         party1.port.postMessage('msg ' + party2.name, [channel.port1]);
                    671:         party2.port.postMessage('msg ' + party1.name, [channel.port2]);
1.36      ihickson  672:       }
                    673:       break;
                    674:   }
1.81      ihickson  675: }</pre><p><strong>Connecting to multiple pages</strong>. The script uses
1.115     ihickson  676:   the <code title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect"><a href="#handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect">onconnect</a></code>
1.81      ihickson  677:   event listener to listen for multiple connections.<p><strong>Direct channels</strong>. When the worker receives a
                    678:   "msg" message from one viewer naming another viewer, it sets up a
                    679:   direct connection between the two, so that the two viewers can
                    680:   communicate directly without the worker having to proxy all the
1.115     ihickson  681:   messages.<p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/multiviewer/page.html">View this example online</a>.<h4 id="delegation"><span class="secno">1.2.5 </span>Delegation</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>With multicore CPUs becoming prevalent, one way to obtain better
1.81      ihickson  682:   performance is to split computationally expensive tasks amongst
                    683:   multiple workers. In this example, a computationally expensive task
                    684:   that is to be performed for every number from 1 to 10,000,000 is
                    685:   farmed out to ten subworkers.<p>The main page is as follows, it just reports the result:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    686: &lt;html&gt;
                    687:  &lt;head&gt;
                    688:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: One-core computation&lt;/title&gt;
                    689:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    690:  &lt;body&gt;
                    691:   &lt;p&gt;The highest prime number discovered so far is: &lt;output id="result"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    692:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  693:    var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
                    694:    worker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  695:      document.getElementById('result').textContent = event.data;
1.40      ihickson  696:    };
1.81      ihickson  697:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    698:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    699: &lt;/html&gt;</pre><p>The worker itself is as follows:<pre>// settings
1.40      ihickson  700: var num_workers = 10;
                    701: var items_per_worker = 1000000;
                    702: 
                    703: // start the workers
                    704: var result = 0;
                    705: var pending_workers = num_workers;
                    706: for (var i = 0; i &lt; num_workers; i += 1) {
1.50      ihickson  707:   var worker = new Worker('core.js');
                    708:   worker.postMessage(i * items_per_worker);
                    709:   worker.postMessage((i+1) * items_per_worker);
                    710:   worker.onmessage = storeResult;
1.40      ihickson  711: }
                    712: 
                    713: // handle the results
                    714: function storeResult(event) {
1.54      ihickson  715:   result += 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson  716:   pending_workers -= 1;
                    717:   if (pending_workers &lt;= 0)
1.50      ihickson  718:     postMessage(result); // finished!
1.81      ihickson  719: }</pre><p>It consists of a loop to start the subworkers, and then a handler
                    720:   that waits for all the subworkers to respond.<p>The subworkers are implemented as follows:<pre>var start;
1.41      ihickson  721: onmessage = getStart;
1.40      ihickson  722: function getStart(event) {
1.54      ihickson  723:   start = 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson  724:   onmessage = getEnd;
                    725: }
                    726: 
                    727: var end;
                    728: function getEnd(event) {
1.54      ihickson  729:   end = 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson  730:   onmessage = null;
1.66      ihickson  731:   work();
1.40      ihickson  732: }
                    733: 
1.66      ihickson  734: function work() {
1.40      ihickson  735:   var result = 0;
                    736:   for (var i = start; i &lt; end; i += 1) {
                    737:     // perform some complex calculation here
                    738:     result += 1;
                    739:   }
1.50      ihickson  740:   postMessage(result);
                    741:   close();
1.81      ihickson  742: }</pre><p>They receive two numbers in two events, perform the computation
                    743:   for the range of numbers thus specified, and then report the result
1.115     ihickson  744:   back to the parent.<p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/multicore/page.html">View this example online</a>.<h4 id="providing-libraries"><span class="secno">1.2.6 </span>Providing libraries</h4><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em><p>Suppose that a cryptography library is made available that
1.81      ihickson  745:   provides three tasks:<dl><dt>Generate a public/private key pair</dt>
                    746: 
                    747:    <dd>Takes a port, on which it will send two messages, first the
                    748:    public key and then the private key.</dd>
                    749: 
                    750:    <dt>Given a plaintext and a public key, return the corresponding cyphertext</dt>
                    751: 
                    752:    <dd>Takes a port, to which any number of messages can be sent, the
                    753:    first giving the public key, and the remainder giving the
                    754:    plaintext, each of which is encrypted and then sent on that same
                    755:    channel as the cyphertext. The user can close the port when it is
                    756:    done encrypting content.</dd>
                    757: 
                    758:    <dt>Given a cyphertext and a private key, return the corresponding plaintext</dt>
                    759: 
                    760:    <dd>Takes a port, to which any number of messages can be sent, the
                    761:    first giving the private key, and the remainder giving the
                    762:    cyphertext, each of which is decrypted and then sent on that same
                    763:    channel as the plaintext. The user can close the port when it is
                    764:    done decrypting content.</dd>
1.49      ihickson  765: 
1.81      ihickson  766:   </dl><p>The library itself is as follows:<pre>function handleMessage(e) {
1.54      ihickson  767:   if (e.data == "genkeys")
1.84      ihickson  768:     genkeys(e.ports[0]);
1.54      ihickson  769:   else if (e.data == "encrypt")
1.84      ihickson  770:     encrypt(e.ports[0]);
1.54      ihickson  771:   else if (e.data == "decrypt")
1.84      ihickson  772:     decrypt(e.ports[0]);
1.49      ihickson  773: }
                    774: 
                    775: function genkeys(p) {
                    776:   var keys = _generateKeyPair();
                    777:   p.postMessage(keys[0]);
                    778:   p.postMessage(keys[1]);
                    779: }
                    780: 
                    781: function encrypt(p) {
                    782:   var key, state = 0;
                    783:   p.onmessage = function (e) {
                    784:     if (state == 0) {
1.54      ihickson  785:       key = e.data;
1.49      ihickson  786:       state = 1;
                    787:     } else {
1.54      ihickson  788:       p.postMessage(_encrypt(key, e.data));
1.49      ihickson  789:     }
                    790:   };
                    791: }
                    792: 
                    793: function decrypt(p) {
                    794:   var key, state = 0;
                    795:   p.onmessage = function (e) {
                    796:     if (state == 0) {
1.54      ihickson  797:       key = e.data;
1.49      ihickson  798:       state = 1;
                    799:     } else {
1.54      ihickson  800:       p.postMessage(_decrypt(key, e.data));
1.49      ihickson  801:     }
                    802:   };
                    803: }
                    804: 
1.50      ihickson  805: // support being used as a shared worker as well as a dedicated worker
                    806: if (this.onmessage) // dedicated worker
                    807:   onmessage = handleMessage;
                    808: else // shared worker
                    809:   onconnect = function (e) { e.port.onmessage = handleMessage; }
1.49      ihickson  810: 
                    811: 
                    812: // the "crypto" functions:
                    813: 
                    814: function _generateKeyPair() {
                    815:   return [Math.random(), Math.random()];
                    816: }
                    817: 
                    818: function _encrypt(k, s) {
                    819:   return 'encrypted-' + k + ' ' + s;
                    820: }
                    821: 
                    822: function _decrypt(k, s) {
                    823:   return s.substr(s.indexOf(' ')+1);
1.81      ihickson  824: }</pre><p>Note that the crypto functions here are just stubs and don't do
                    825:   real cryptography.<p>This library could be used as follows:<pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
                    826: &lt;html&gt;
                    827:  &lt;head&gt;
                    828:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: Crypto library&lt;/title&gt;
                    829:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  830:    var crytoLib = new Worker('libcrypto-v1.js'); // or could use 'libcrypto-v2.js'
1.49      ihickson  831:    function getKeys() {
                    832:      var state = 0;
1.50      ihickson  833:      cryptoLib.startConversation("genkeys").onmessage = function (e) {
1.49      ihickson  834:        if (state == 0)
1.54      ihickson  835:          document.getElementById('public').value = e.data;
1.49      ihickson  836:        else if (state == 1)
1.54      ihickson  837:          document.getElementById('private').value = e.data;
1.49      ihickson  838:        state += 1;
                    839:      };
                    840:    }
                    841:    function enc() {
1.50      ihickson  842:      var port = cryptoLib.startConversation("encrypt");
                    843:      port.postMessage(document.getElementById('public').value);
                    844:      port.postMessage(document.getElementById('input').value);
                    845:      port.onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  846:        document.getElementById('input').value = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  847:        port.close();
1.49      ihickson  848:      };
                    849:    }
                    850:    function dec() {
1.50      ihickson  851:      var port = cryptoLib.startConversation("decrypt");
                    852:      port.postMessage(document.getElementById('private').value);
                    853:      port.postMessage(document.getElementById('input').value);
                    854:      port.onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  855:        document.getElementById('input').value = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  856:        port.close();
1.49      ihickson  857:      };
                    858:    }
1.81      ihickson  859:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    860:   &lt;style&gt;
1.49      ihickson  861:    textarea { display: block; }
1.81      ihickson  862:   &lt;/style&gt;
                    863:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    864:  &lt;body onload="getKeys()"&gt;
                    865:   &lt;fieldset&gt;
                    866:    &lt;legend&gt;Keys&lt;/legend&gt;
                    867:    &lt;p&gt;&lt;label&gt;Public Key: &lt;textarea id="public"&gt;&lt;/textarea&gt;&lt;/label&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    868:    &lt;p&gt;&lt;label&gt;Private Key: &lt;textarea id="private"&gt;&lt;/textarea&gt;&lt;/label&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    869:   &lt;/fieldset&gt;
                    870:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;label&gt;Input: &lt;textarea id="input"&gt;&lt;/textarea&gt;&lt;/label&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    871:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;button onclick="enc()"&gt;Encrypt&lt;/button&gt; &lt;button onclick="dec()"&gt;Decrypt&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    872:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    873: &lt;/html&gt;</pre><p>A later version of the API, though, might want to offload all the
                    874:   crypto work onto subworkers. This could be done as follows:<pre>function handleMessage(e) {
1.54      ihickson  875:   if (e.data == "genkeys")
1.84      ihickson  876:     genkeys(e.ports[0]);
1.54      ihickson  877:   else if (e.data == "encrypt")
1.84      ihickson  878:     encrypt(e.ports[0]);
1.54      ihickson  879:   else if (e.data == "decrypt")
1.84      ihickson  880:     decrypt(e.ports[0]);
1.49      ihickson  881: }
                    882: 
                    883: function genkeys(p) {
1.50      ihickson  884:   var generator = new Worker('libcrypto-v2-generator.js');
1.84      ihickson  885:   generator.postMessage('', [p]);
1.49      ihickson  886: }
                    887: 
                    888: function encrypt(p) {
                    889:   p.onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  890:     var key = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  891:     var encryptor = new Worker('libcrypto-v2-encryptor.js');
1.84      ihickson  892:     encryptor.postMessage(key, [p]);
1.49      ihickson  893:   };
                    894: }
                    895: 
                    896: function encrypt(p) {
                    897:   p.onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  898:     var key = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  899:     var decryptor = new Worker('libcrypto-v2-decryptor.js');
1.84      ihickson  900:     decryptor.postMessage(key, [p]);
1.49      ihickson  901:   };
                    902: }
                    903: 
1.50      ihickson  904: // support being used as a shared worker as well as a dedicated worker
                    905: if (this.onmessage) // dedicated worker
                    906:   onmessage = handleMessage;
                    907: else // shared worker
1.84      ihickson  908:   onconnect = function (e) { e.ports[0].onmessage = handleMessage };
1.81      ihickson  909: </pre><p>The little subworkers would then be as follows.<p>For generating key pairs:<pre>onmessage = function (e) {
1.50      ihickson  910:   var k = _generateKeyPair();
1.84      ihickson  911:   e.ports[0].postMessage(k[0]);
                    912:   e.ports[0].postMessage(k[1]);
1.49      ihickson  913:   close();
                    914: }
1.50      ihickson  915: 
                    916: function _generateKeyPair() {
                    917:   return [Math.random(), Math.random()];
1.81      ihickson  918: }</pre><p>For encrypting:<pre>onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  919:   var key = e.data;
1.84      ihickson  920:   e.ports[0].onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  921:     var s = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  922:     postMessage(_encrypt(key, s));
1.49      ihickson  923:   }
1.50      ihickson  924: }
                    925: 
                    926: function _encrypt(k, s) {
                    927:   return 'encrypted-' + k + ' ' + s;
1.81      ihickson  928: }</pre><p>For decrypting:<pre>onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  929:   var key = e.data;
1.84      ihickson  930:   e.ports[0].onmessage = function (e) {
1.54      ihickson  931:     var s = e.data;
1.50      ihickson  932:     postMessage(_decrypt(key, s));
1.49      ihickson  933:   }
1.50      ihickson  934: }
                    935: 
                    936: function _decrypt(k, s) {
                    937:   return s.substr(s.indexOf(' ')+1);
1.81      ihickson  938: }</pre><p>Notice how the users of the API don't have to even know that this
                    939:   is happening &mdash; the API hasn't changed; the library can
                    940:   delegate to subworkers without changing its API, even though it is
1.115     ihickson  941:   accepting data using message channels.<p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/crypto/page.html">View this example online</a>.<h2 id="conformance-requirements"><span class="secno">2 </span>Conformance requirements</h2><p>All diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are
1.81      ihickson  942:   non-normative, as are all sections explicitly marked non-normative.
                    943:   Everything else in this specification is normative.<p>The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", <!--"SHALL", "SHALL
                    944:   NOT",--> "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
                    945:   "OPTIONAL" in the normative parts of this document are to be
                    946:   interpreted as described in RFC2119. For readability, these words do
1.115     ihickson  947:   not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification. <a href="#references">[RFC2119]</a><p>Requirements phrased in the imperative as part of algorithms
1.81      ihickson  948:   (such as "strip any leading space characters" or "return false and
                    949:   abort these steps") are to be interpreted with the meaning of the
                    950:   key word ("must", "should", "may", etc) used in introducing the
                    951:   algorithm.<p>Some conformance requirements are phrased as requirements on
                    952:   attributes, methods or objects. Such requirements are to be
                    953:   interpreted as requirements on user agents.<p>Conformance requirements phrased as algorithms or specific steps
                    954:   may be implemented in any manner, so long as the end result is
                    955:   equivalent. (In particular, the algorithms defined in this
                    956:   specification are intended to be easy to follow, and not intended to
                    957:   be performant.)<p>The only conformance class defined by this specification is user
                    958:   agents.<p>User agents may impose implementation-specific limits on
                    959:   otherwise unconstrained inputs, e.g. to prevent denial of service
                    960:   attacks, to guard against running out of memory, or to work around
1.115     ihickson  961:   platform-specific limitations.<h3 id="dependencies"><span class="secno">2.1 </span>Dependencies</h3><p>This specification relies on several other underlying
1.81      ihickson  962:   specifications.<dl><dt>HTML5</dt>
1.49      ihickson  963: 
1.81      ihickson  964:    <dd>
1.49      ihickson  965: 
1.81      ihickson  966:     <p>Many fundamental concepts from HTML5 are used by this
1.115     ihickson  967:     specification. <a href="#references">[HTML5]</a></p>
1.49      ihickson  968: 
1.81      ihickson  969:    </dd>
1.1       ihickson  970: 
1.81      ihickson  971:    <dt>WebIDL</dt>
1.1       ihickson  972: 
                    973:    <dd>
                    974: 
1.81      ihickson  975:     <p>The IDL blocks in this specification use the semantics of the
1.115     ihickson  976:     WebIDL specification. <a href="#references">[WebIDL]</a></p>
1.1       ihickson  977: 
1.81      ihickson  978:    </dd>
1.1       ihickson  979: 
1.115     ihickson  980:   </dl><h2 id="terminology"><span class="secno">3 </span>Terminology</h2><p>The construction "a <code title="">Foo</code> object", where
1.81      ihickson  981:   <code title="">Foo</code> is actually an interface, is sometimes
                    982:   used instead of the more accurate "an object implementing the
                    983:   interface <code title="">Foo</code>".<p>The term DOM is used to refer to the API set made available to
                    984:   scripts in Web applications, and does not necessarily imply the
                    985:   existence of an actual <code>Document</code> object or of any other
                    986:   <code>Node</code> objects as defined in the DOM Core
1.115     ihickson  987:   specifications. <a href="#references">[DOM3CORE]</a><p>A DOM attribute is said to be <em>getting</em> when its value is
1.81      ihickson  988:   being retrieved (e.g. by author script), and is said to be
1.103     ihickson  989:   <em>setting</em> when a new value is assigned to it.<p>The term "JavaScript" is used to refer to ECMA262, rather than
                    990:   the official term ECMAScript, since the term JavaScript is more
1.115     ihickson  991:   widely known. <a href="#references">[ECMA262]</a><h2 id="infrastructure"><span class="secno">4 </span>Infrastructure</h2><p>There are two kinds of workers; dedicated workers, and shared
1.81      ihickson  992:   workers. Dedicated workers, once created, and are linked to their
                    993:   creator; but message ports can be used to communicate from a
                    994:   dedicated worker to multiple other browsing contexts or
                    995:   workers. Shared workers, on the other hand, are named, and once
                    996:   created any script running in the same <span>origin</span> can
1.115     ihickson  997:   obtain a reference to that worker and communicate with it.<h3 id="the-global-scope"><span class="secno">4.1 </span>The global scope</h3><p>The global scope is the "inside" of a worker.<h4 id="the-workerglobalscope-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.1.1 </span>The <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> abstract interface</h4><pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</dfn> {
                    998:   readonly attribute <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-self" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-self">self</a>;
                    999:   readonly attribute <a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a> <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location">location</a>;
                   1000:   // also implements everything on <a href="#workerutils">WorkerUtils</a>
                   1001: 
                   1002:   void <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-close" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-close">close</a>();
1.123     ihickson 1003: <!-- v2-onclose           attribute <span>EventListener</span> <span title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onclose">onclose</span>;
                   1004: -->           attribute <span>EventListener</span> <a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onerror" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror">onerror</a>;
1.115     ihickson 1005: };</pre><p>Objects implementing the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface
                   1006:   must also implement the <code>EventTarget</code> interface.<p>The <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-self" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-self"><code>self</code></dfn> attribute
                   1007:   must return the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object itself.<p>The <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-location" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><code>location</code></dfn>
                   1008:   attribute must return the <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> object created
                   1009:   for the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object when the worker was
1.81      ihickson 1010:   created. It represents the <span>absolute URL</span> of the script
1.123     ihickson 1011:   that was used to initialize the worker.<hr><p>When a script invokes the <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-close" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-close"><code>close()</code></dfn>
                   1012:   method on a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, the user agent
                   1013:   must run the following steps (atomically):<ol><li><p>Discard any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> that
                   1014:    have been added to the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task
                   1015:    queue">task queues</span>.</p>
                   1016: 
                   1017: <!-- v2-onclose
                   1018:    <li><p><span>Queue a task</span> to <span>fire a simple
1.115     ihickson 1019:    event</span> called <code title="event-close">close</code> at the
1.123     ihickson 1020:    <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> object.</p></li>
                   1021: -->
1.81      ihickson 1022: 
1.115     ihickson 1023:    <li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's
                   1024:    <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to
1.123     ihickson 1025:    true. (This prevents any further tasks from being queued.)</li>
1.81      ihickson 1026: 
1.124     ihickson 1027:    <li><p>Disentangle all the ports in the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-ports">the worker's
1.123     ihickson 1028:    ports</a>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1029: 
1.102     ihickson 1030:   </ol><p>The following are the <span>event handler attributes</span> (and their corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler event types</span>)
                   1031:   that must be supported, as DOM attributes, by objects implementing
1.115     ihickson 1032:   the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface:<table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handler attributes">event handler attribute</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.123     ihickson 1033:    <tbody><!-- v2-onclose    <tr><td><dfn title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onclose"><code>onclose</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-close">close</code> --><tr><td><dfn id="handler-workerglobalscope-onerror" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror"><code>onerror</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-error">error</code>
1.115     ihickson 1034:   </table><h4 id="dedicated-workers-and-the-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.1.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface</h4><!-- the XXX below is for collapsing this interface onto WorkerGlobalScope so it looks like just one interface - the inheritance is a spec fiction only --><pre class="idl">[NoInterfaceObject, XXX] interface <dfn id="dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</dfn> : <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> {
                   1035:   void <a href="#dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage" title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage">postMessage</a>(in any message, [Optional] in <span>MessagePortArray</span> ports);<!--
1.77      ihickson 1036:   <span>MessagePort</span> <span title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-startConversation">startConversation</span>(in any message);-->
1.115     ihickson 1037:            attribute <span>EventListener</span> <a href="#handler-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-onmessage" title="handler-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-onmessage">onmessage</a>;
                   1038: };</pre><p><code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> objects act as if they
1.81      ihickson 1039:   had an implicit <code>MessagePort</code> associated with them. This
                   1040:   port is part of a channel that is set up when the worker is created,
                   1041:   but it is not exposed. This object must never be garbage collected
1.115     ihickson 1042:   before the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object.<p>All messages received by that port must immediately be retargeted
                   1043:   at the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object.<p>The <dfn id="dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage" title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage"><code>postMessage()</code></dfn><!--
1.64      ihickson 1044:   and <dfn
                   1045:   title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-startConversation"><code>startConversation()</code></dfn>-->
1.81      ihickson 1046:   method<!--s (startConversation)--> on
1.115     ihickson 1047:   <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> objects must act as if, when
1.81      ihickson 1048:   invoked, it<!--/they (startConversation)--> immediately invoked the
                   1049:   method of the same name on the port, with the same arguments, and
1.123     ihickson 1050:   returned the same return value.<p>The following are the <span>event handler attributes</span> (and
                   1051:   their corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event
                   1052:   handler event types</span>) that must be supported, as DOM
                   1053:   attributes, by objects implementing the
                   1054:   <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface:<table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handler attributes">event handler attribute</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.115     ihickson 1055:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-onmessage" title="handler-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-onmessage"><code>onmessage</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-message">message</code>
1.102     ihickson 1056:   </table><p>For the purposes of the <span>offline application cache</span>
1.101     ihickson 1057:   networking model, a dedicated worker is an extension of the
1.115     ihickson 1058:   <span>cache host</span> from which it was created.<h4 id="shared-workers-and-the-sharedworkerglobalscope-inteface"><span class="secno">4.1.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> inteface</h4><!-- the XXX below is for collapsing this interface onto WorkerGlobalScope so it looks like just one interface - the inheritance is a spec fiction only --><pre class="idl">[NoInterfaceObject, XXX] interface <dfn id="sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</dfn> : <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> {
                   1059:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name">name</a>;
                   1060:   readonly attribute <span>ApplicationCache</span> <a href="#dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-applicationcache" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-applicationCache">applicationCache</a>;
                   1061:            attribute <span>EventListener</span> <a href="#handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect" title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect">onconnect</a>;
                   1062: };</pre><p>Shared workers receive message ports through <code title="event-WorkerGlobalScope-connect">connect</code> events on
                   1063:   their global object for each connection.<p>The <dfn id="dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name"><code>name</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1064:   attribute must return the value it was assigned when the
1.115     ihickson 1065:   <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object was created by the
                   1066:   "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" algorithm. Its value represents the name
1.81      ihickson 1067:   that can be used to obtain a reference to the worker using the
1.123     ihickson 1068:   <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> constructor.<p>The following are the <span>event handler attributes</span> (and
                   1069:   their corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event
                   1070:   handler event types</span>) that must be supported, as DOM
                   1071:   attributes, by objects implementing the
                   1072:   <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface:<table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handler attributes">event handler attribute</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.115     ihickson 1073:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect" title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect"><code>onconnect</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-connect">connect</code>
1.102     ihickson 1074:   </table><p>For the purposes of the <span>offline application cache</span>
1.101     ihickson 1075:   networking model, a shared worker is its own <span>cache
1.115     ihickson 1076:   host</span>. The <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm takes care of
                   1077:   associating the worker with an <span>application cache</span>.<p class="note">The <dfn id="dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-applicationcache" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-applicationCache"><code>applicationCache</code></dfn>
1.123     ihickson 1078:   attribute returns the <code>ApplicationCache</code> object for the
1.101     ihickson 1079:   worker.</p><!-- normative conf criteria is in the appcache section
1.115     ihickson 1080:   --><h3 id="base-urls-and-origins-of-workers"><span class="secno">4.2 </span>Base URLs and origins of workers</h3><p>Both the <span>origin</span> and <span>effective script
1.81      ihickson 1081:   origin</span> of scripts running in workers are the
                   1082:   <span>origin</span> of the <span>absolute URL</span> given in that
1.115     ihickson 1083:   the worker's <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location">location</a></code> attribute
                   1084:   represents.<h3 id="decoding-scripts"><span class="secno">4.3 </span>Decoding scripts</h3><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="decode-a-script-resource">decode a script resource</dfn> to
1.85      ihickson 1085:   obtain its source in Unicode, it must run the following steps:<ol><li>
                   1086: 
                   1087:     <p>Let <var title="">character encoding</var> be <i title="">unknown</i>.</p>
                   1088: 
                   1089:    </li>
                   1090: 
                   1091:    <li>
                   1092: 
                   1093:     <p>For each of the rows in the following table, starting with the
                   1094:     first one and going down, if the resource has as many or more
                   1095:     bytes available than the number of bytes in the first column, and
                   1096:     the first bytes of the resource match the bytes given in the first
                   1097:     column, then let <var title="">character encoding</var> be the
                   1098:     encoding given in the cell in the second column of that row:</p>
                   1099: 
                   1100:     <!-- this table is present in several forms in this file; keep them in sync -->
                   1101:     <table><thead><tr><th>Bytes in Hexadecimal
                   1102:        <th>Encoding
                   1103:      <tbody><!-- nobody uses this
                   1104:       <tr>
                   1105:        <td>00 00 FE FF
                   1106:        <td>UTF-32BE
                   1107:       <tr>
                   1108:        <td>FF FE 00 00
                   1109:        <td>UTF-32LE
                   1110: --><tr><td>FE FF
                   1111:        <td>UTF-16BE
                   1112:       <tr><td>FF FE
                   1113:        <td>UTF-16LE
                   1114:       <tr><td>EF BB BF
                   1115:        <td>UTF-8
                   1116: <!-- nobody uses this
                   1117:       <tr>
                   1118:        <td>DD 73 66 73
                   1119:        <td>UTF-EBCDIC
                   1120: -->
1.115     ihickson 1121:     </table><p class="note">This step looks for Unicode Byte Order Marks
1.85      ihickson 1122:     (BOMs).</p>
                   1123: 
                   1124:    </li>
                   1125: 
                   1126:    <li>
                   1127: 
                   1128:     <p>If <var title="">character encoding</var> is still <i title="">unknown</i>, apply the <span>algorithm for extracting an
1.115     ihickson 1129:     encoding from a Content-Type</span> to the resource's <span title="Content-Type">Content Type metadata</span>; if this returns
1.85      ihickson 1130:     an encoding, and the user agent supports that encoding, then let
                   1131:     <var title="">character encoding</var> be that encoding.</p>
                   1132: 
                   1133:    </li>
                   1134: 
                   1135:    <li>
                   1136: 
                   1137:     <p>If <var title="">character encoding</var> is still <i title="">unknown</i>, then let <var title="">character
                   1138:     encoding</var> be UTF-8.</p>
                   1139: 
                   1140:    </li>
                   1141: 
                   1142:    <li>
                   1143: 
                   1144:     <p>Convert the resource to Unicode using the character encoding
                   1145:     given by <var title="">character encoding</var>.</p>
                   1146: 
                   1147:     <p>Return the text that is so obtained.</p>
                   1148: 
                   1149:    </li>
                   1150: 
1.128   ! ihickson 1151:   </ol><h3 id="the-event-loop"><span class="secno">4.4 </span>The event loop</h3><p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object has an <span>event
        !          1152:   loop</span> distinct from those defined for <span title="unit of
        !          1153:   related similar-origin browsing contexts">units of related
        !          1154:   similar-origin browsing contexts</span>. This <span>event
        !          1155:   loop</span> has no associated <span>browsing context</span>, and its
        !          1156:   <span title="task queue">task queues</span> only have events,
        !          1157:   callbacks, and networking activity as <span title="concept-task">tasks</span>. The processing model of these
        !          1158:   <span title="event loop">event loops</span> is defined below in the
        !          1159:   <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm.<p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object also has a <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</dfn> flag, which must
1.81      ihickson 1160:   initially be false, but which can get set to true by the algorithms
1.115     ihickson 1161:   in the processing model section below.<p>Once the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set to
1.81      ihickson 1162:   true, the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task
1.115     ihickson 1163:   queues</span> must discard any further <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> that would be added to them (tasks
1.81      ihickson 1164:   already on the queue are unaffected unless otherwise
1.115     ihickson 1165:   specified). Effectively, once the <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is true,
1.81      ihickson 1166:   timers stop firing, notifications for all pending asynchronous
1.124     ihickson 1167:   operations are dropped, etc.<h3 id="the-worker-s-lifetime"><span class="secno">4.5 </span>The worker's lifetime</h3><p>Workers communicate with other workers and with <span title="browsing context">browsing contexts</span> through <span title="channel messaging">message channels</span> and their
1.115     ihickson 1168:   <code>MessagePort</code> objects.<p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> <var title="">worker global
1.124     ihickson 1169:   scope</var> has a list of <dfn id="the-worker-s-ports">the worker's ports</dfn>, which
1.81      ihickson 1170:   consists of all the <code>MessagePort</code> objects that are
                   1171:   entangled with another port and that have one (but only one) port
                   1172:   owned by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. This list includes
                   1173:   <!--all the <code>MessagePort</code> objects that are in events
1.68      ihickson 1174:   pending in the <span>event loop</span>, as well as (commented out
                   1175:   because in practice it makes no difference either way as far as I
                   1176:   can tell, and it would be hard to strictly implement since these
1.81      ihickson 1177:   ports might not yet be across the thread boundary)--> the implicit
1.124     ihickson 1178:   <code>MessagePort</code> in the case of <a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope" title="DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope">dedicated workers</a>.<p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> also has a list of <dfn id="the-worker-s-workers">the
                   1179:   worker's workers</dfn>. Initially this list is empty; it is
                   1180:   populated when the worker creates or obtains further workers.<p>Finally, each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> also has a list of
                   1181:   <dfn id="the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</dfn>. Initially this list
                   1182:   is empty; it is populated when the worker is created.<p>Whenever a <code>Document</code> <var title="">d</var> is <dfn id="add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">added to the
1.123     ihickson 1183:   worker's <code>Document</code>s</dfn>, the user agent must, for each
1.124     ihickson 1184:   worker in the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the worker's workers</a> whose list
                   1185:   of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> does not contain
                   1186:   <var title="">d</var>, <a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's
1.123     ihickson 1187:   documents">add <var title="">d</var> to <var title="">q</var>'s
                   1188:   <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> owner's list of <span>the worker's
                   1189:   <code>Document</code>s</span></a>.</p><!-- suggestions welcome
                   1190:   on making this sentence into understandable English --><p>Whenever a <code>Document</code> object is <span title="discard a
                   1191:   Document">discarded</span>, it must be removed from the list of
                   1192:   <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> of each worker
                   1193:   whose list contains that <code>Document</code>.<p>Given a <span>script's global scope</span> <var title="">o</var>
                   1194:   when creating or obtaining a worker, the <dfn id="list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant
                   1195:   <code>Document</code> objects to add</dfn> depends on the type of
                   1196:   <var title="">o</var>. If <var title="">o</var> is a
                   1197:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. if we are creating a
                   1198:   nested worker), then the relevant <code>Document</code>s are the
                   1199:   <code>Document</code>s that are in <var title="">o</var>'s own list
                   1200:   of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a>. Otherwise, <var title="">o</var> is a <code>Window</code> object, and the relevant
                   1201:   <code>Document</code> is just the <code>Document</code> that is the
                   1202:   <span>active document</span> of the <code>Window</code> object <var title="">o</var>.<hr><p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="permissible-worker">permissible worker</dfn> if its
                   1203:   list of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> is not
                   1204:   empty.<p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="protected-worker">protected worker</dfn> if it is a
                   1205:   <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a> and either it has outstanding
                   1206:   timers, database transactions, or network connections, or its list
1.124     ihickson 1207:   of <a href="#the-worker-s-ports">the worker's ports</a> is not empty, or its
1.123     ihickson 1208:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> is actually a
                   1209:   <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a
                   1210:   shared worker).<p>A worker is said to be an <dfn id="active-needed-worker">active needed worker</dfn> if any
                   1211:   of the <code>Document</code> objects in <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's
                   1212:   <code>Document</code>s</a> are <span>fully active</span>.<p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</dfn> if it is
                   1213:   not an <a href="#active-needed-worker">active needed worker</a> but it is a
                   1214:   <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a>.<h3 id="processing-model"><span class="secno">4.6 </span>Processing model</h3><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="run-a-worker">run a worker</dfn> for a script with
1.81      ihickson 1215:   <span>URL</span> <var title="">url</var>, a browsing context <var title="">owner browsing context</var>, and with global scope <var title="">worker global scope</var>, it must run the following
                   1216:   steps:<ol><li>
                   1217: 
                   1218:     <p>Create a completely separate and parallel execution environment
                   1219:     (i.e. a separate thread or process or equivalent construct), and
1.106     ihickson 1220:     run the rest of these steps asynchronously in that context.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1221: 
                   1222:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1223: 
1.101     ihickson 1224:    <li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is actually a
1.115     ihickson 1225:    <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a
1.101     ihickson 1226:    shared worker), and there are any <span title="relevant application
                   1227:    cache">relevant application caches</span> that are identified by a
                   1228:    manifest URL with the <span>same origin</span> as <var title="">url</var> and that have <var title="">url</var> as one of
1.115     ihickson 1229:    their entries, <em>not</em> excluding entries marked as <span title="concept-appcache-foreign">foreign</span>, then associate the
                   1230:    <var title="">worker global scope</var> with the <span title="concept-appcache-selection">most appropriate application
1.101     ihickson 1231:    cache</span> of those that match.</li>
                   1232: 
1.4       ihickson 1233:    <li>
1.52      ihickson 1234: 
1.81      ihickson 1235:     <p>Attempt to <span>fetch</span> the resource identified by <var title="">url</var>.</p>
                   1236: 
1.115     ihickson 1237:     <p>If the attempt fails, then for each <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> or
                   1238:     <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object associated with <var title="">worker global scope</var>, <span>queue a task</span> to
                   1239:     <span>fire a simple event</span> called <code title="event-error">error</code> at that object. Abort these
1.81      ihickson 1240:     steps.</p>
1.7       ihickson 1241: 
1.115     ihickson 1242:     <p>If the attempt succeeds, then <a href="#decode-a-script-resource" title="decode a script
1.85      ihickson 1243:     resource">decode the script resource</a> to obtain its <var title="">source</var>.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1244: 
1.68      ihickson 1245:     <p>Let <var title="">language</var> be JavaScript.</p>
1.7       ihickson 1246: 
1.115     ihickson 1247:     <p class="note">As with <code>script</code> elements, the MIME
1.81      ihickson 1248:     type of the script is ignored. Unlike with <code>script</code>
                   1249:     elements, there is no way to override the type. It's always
                   1250:     assumed to be JavaScript.</p> <!-- XXX people will complain about
1.7       ihickson 1251:     this. I guess we might want to examine the MIME type... -->
1.81      ihickson 1252: 
                   1253:    </li>
1.7       ihickson 1254: 
                   1255:    <li>
1.68      ihickson 1256: 
1.115     ihickson 1257:     <p>A new <span title="concept-script">script</span> is now
1.81      ihickson 1258:     created, as follows.</p>
                   1259: 
                   1260:     <p>Create a new <span>script execution environment</span>
                   1261:     set up as appropriate for the scripting language <var title="">language</var>.</p>
1.34      ihickson 1262: 
1.68      ihickson 1263:     <p>Parse/compile/initialize <var title="">source</var> using that
1.81      ihickson 1264:     <span>script execution environment</span>, as appropriate for <var title="">language</var>, and thus obtain a <span>list of code
                   1265:     entry-points</span>; set the <i>initial code entry-point</i> to
                   1266:     the entry-point for any executable code to be immediately run.</p>
                   1267: 
                   1268:     <p>Set the <span>script's global object</span> to <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</p>
                   1269: 
                   1270:     <p>Set the <span>script's browsing context</span> to <var title="">owner browsing context</var>.</p>
                   1271: 
1.83      ihickson 1272:     <p>Set the <span>script's URL character encoding</span> to
1.81      ihickson 1273:     UTF-8. (This is just used for encoding non-ASCII characters in the
                   1274:     query component of URLs.)</p>
1.68      ihickson 1275: 
                   1276:     <p>Set the <span>script's base URL</span> to <var title="">url</var>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1277: 
1.81      ihickson 1278:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1279: 
                   1280:    <li>
1.81      ihickson 1281: 
                   1282:     <p><strong>Closing orphan workers</strong>: Start monitoring the
1.125     ihickson 1283:     worker such that no sooner than it stops being either a
                   1284:     <a href="#protected-worker">protected worker</a> or a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable
1.123     ihickson 1285:     worker</a>, and no later than it stops being a
                   1286:     <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a>, <var title="">worker global
                   1287:     scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set
                   1288:     to true<!-- v2-onclose and <span title="queue a task">a task is
                   1289:     queued</span> to <span>fire a simple event</span> called <code
                   1290:     title="event-close">close</code> at <var title="">worker global
                   1291:     scope</var>-->.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1292: 
                   1293:    </li>
1.9       ihickson 1294: 
                   1295:    <li>
1.7       ihickson 1296: 
1.81      ihickson 1297:     <p><strong>Suspending workers</strong>: Start monitoring the
                   1298:     worker, such that whenever <var title="">worker global
1.115     ihickson 1299:     scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is false
                   1300:     and the worker is a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</a>, the user
1.81      ihickson 1301:     agent suspends execution of script in that worker until such time
1.115     ihickson 1302:     as either the <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag switches
                   1303:     to true or the worker stops being a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable
1.81      ihickson 1304:     worker</a>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1305: 
1.81      ihickson 1306:    </li>
1.68      ihickson 1307: 
                   1308:    <li>
1.4       ihickson 1309: 
1.81      ihickson 1310:     <p><span title="jump to a code entry-point">Jump</span> to the
1.115     ihickson 1311:     <span title="concept-script">script</span>'s <i>initial code
1.81      ihickson 1312:     entry-point</i>, and let that run until it either returns, fails
                   1313:     to catch an exception, or gets prematurely aborted by the
1.115     ihickson 1314:     "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>"
1.81      ihickson 1315:     algorithms defined below.</p>
                   1316: 
1.115     ihickson 1317:     <p class="note">If the script gets aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a
1.81      ihickson 1318:     worker</a>" algorithm, then that same algorithm will cause
1.115     ihickson 1319:     there to only be a single <span title="concept-task">task</span>
1.81      ihickson 1320:     in the <span>event loop</span> at the next step, namely the task
1.115     ihickson 1321:     for the <code title="message-close">close</code> event. The
                   1322:     "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithm removes all the
1.81      ihickson 1323:     events.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1324: 
1.81      ihickson 1325:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1326: 
1.95      ihickson 1327:    <li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is actually a
1.115     ihickson 1328:    <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is
1.126     ihickson 1329:    a dedicated worker), then enable the <span>port message
                   1330:    queue</span> of the worker's implicit port.</li>
1.95      ihickson 1331: 
1.4       ihickson 1332:    <li>
1.68      ihickson 1333: 
1.115     ihickson 1334:     <p><i title="">Event loop</i>: Wait until either there is a <span title="concept-task">task</span> in one of the <span>event
                   1335:     loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task queues</span> or <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set
1.81      ihickson 1336:     to true.</p>
1.43      ihickson 1337: 
1.81      ihickson 1338:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1339: 
                   1340:    <li>
                   1341: 
1.81      ihickson 1342:     <p>Run the oldest task on one of the <span>event loop</span>'s
                   1343:     <span title="task queue">task queues</span>, if any. The user
                   1344:     agent may pick any <span>task queue</span>.</p>
                   1345: 
1.115     ihickson 1346:     <p class="note">The handling of events or the execution of
                   1347:     callbacks might get prematurely aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a
                   1348:     worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithms
1.81      ihickson 1349:     defined below.</p>
1.8       ihickson 1350: 
1.81      ihickson 1351:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1352: 
                   1353:    <li>
                   1354: 
1.81      ihickson 1355:     <p>Remove the task run in the previous step, if any, from its
                   1356:     <span>task queue</span>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1357: 
1.81      ihickson 1358:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1359: 
                   1360:    <li>
1.8       ihickson 1361: 
1.81      ihickson 1362:     <p>If there are any more events in the <span>event loop</span>'s
1.115     ihickson 1363:     <span title="task queue">task queues</span> or if <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set
1.81      ihickson 1364:     to false, then jump back to the step above labeled <i>event
                   1365:     loop</i>.</p>
1.8       ihickson 1366: 
1.81      ihickson 1367:    </li>
1.8       ihickson 1368: 
                   1369:    <li>
1.71      ihickson 1370: 
1.123     ihickson 1371:     <p>If there are any outstanding transactions that have callbacks
                   1372:     that involve <span title="concept-script">scripts</span> whose
                   1373:     <span title="script's global object">global object</span> is the
                   1374:     <var title="">worker global scope</var>, roll them back (without
                   1375:     invoking any of the callbacks).</p>
1.50      ihickson 1376: 
1.123     ihickson 1377:    </li>
                   1378: 
                   1379:    <li>
                   1380: 
                   1381:     <p>Empty the <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <span>list
                   1382:     of active timeouts</span> and its <span>list of active
                   1383:     intervals</span>.</p>
1.50      ihickson 1384: 
1.81      ihickson 1385:    </li>
1.50      ihickson 1386: 
1.123     ihickson 1387: <!-- v2-onclose
1.81      ihickson 1388:    <li>
1.50      ihickson 1389: 
1.123     ihickson 1390:     <p>For each <code>Worker</code> or <code>SharedWorker</code>
1.81      ihickson 1391:     object associated with <var title="">worker global scope</var>,
                   1392:     <span>queue a task</span> to <span>fire a simple event</span>
1.115     ihickson 1393:     called <code title="event-close">close</code> at that object.</p>
1.5       ihickson 1394: 
1.81      ihickson 1395:    </li>
1.123     ihickson 1396: -->
1.115     ihickson 1397:   </ol><hr><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="kill-a-worker">kill a worker</dfn> it must
1.81      ihickson 1398:   run the following steps in parallel with the worker's main loop (the
1.123     ihickson 1399:   "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" processing model defined above):<ol><!-- v2-onclose
                   1400:    <li><p>If the worker's <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> object's
                   1401:    <span title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</span> flag is
1.81      ihickson 1402:    false, <span>queue a task</span> to <span>fire a simple
1.115     ihickson 1403:    event</span> called <code title="event-close">close</code> at the
1.123     ihickson 1404:    worker's <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> object.</p></li>
                   1405: --><li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to
1.81      ihickson 1406:    true.</li>
                   1407: 
1.123     ihickson 1408: <!-- v2-onclose
                   1409:    <li><p>Wait a user-agent-defined amount of time. If the "<span>run
                   1410:    a worker</span>" processing model defined above immediately starts
                   1411:    running event listeners registered for the <code
                   1412:    title="event-close">close</code> event, this time should not be
                   1413:    zero &mdash; the idea is that the <code
                   1414:    title="event-close">close</code> event can be used to clean up
                   1415:    when shutting down unexpectedly.</p></li>
                   1416: -->
1.81      ihickson 1417: 
1.115     ihickson 1418:    <li><p>If there are any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span>
1.81      ihickson 1419:    queued in the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task
1.123     ihickson 1420:    queue">task queues</span><!-- v2-onclose other than the <code
                   1421:    title="event-close">close</code> event that this algorithm just
                   1422:    added-->, discard them without processing them.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1423: 
1.123     ihickson 1424: <!-- v2-onclose
1.115     ihickson 1425:    <li><p>If the <code title="event-close">close</code> event that
1.81      ihickson 1426:    this algorithm just queued hasn't yet been dispatched, then abort
1.123     ihickson 1427:    the script currently running in the worker.</p></li>
                   1428: -->
1.81      ihickson 1429: 
                   1430:    <li><p>Wait a user-agent-defined amount of time.</li>
                   1431: 
1.123     ihickson 1432:    <li><p>Abort the script currently running in the worker<!--
                   1433:    v2-onclose (if any script is running, then it will be a handler for
                   1434:    the <code title="event-close">close</code> event)-->.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1435: 
1.115     ihickson 1436:   </ol><p>User agents may invoke the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>"
1.81      ihickson 1437:   processing model on a worker at any time, e.g. in response to user
                   1438:   requests, in response to CPU quota management, or when a worker
1.115     ihickson 1439:   stops being an <a href="#active-needed-worker">active needed worker</a> if the worker
                   1440:   continues executing even after its <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag was
                   1441:   set to true.<hr><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</dfn> it must run
1.81      ihickson 1442:   the following steps in parallel with the worker's main loop (the
1.115     ihickson 1443:   "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" processing model defined above):<ol><li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's
                   1444:    <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to
1.81      ihickson 1445:    true.</li>
                   1446: 
1.115     ihickson 1447:    <li><p>If there are any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span>
1.81      ihickson 1448:    queued in the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task
                   1449:    queue">task queues</span>, discard them without processing
                   1450:    them.</li>
                   1451: 
                   1452:    <li><p>Abort the script currently running in the worker.</li>
                   1453: 
1.115     ihickson 1454:    <li><p>If the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object is
                   1455:    actually a <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the
1.81      ihickson 1456:    worker is a dedicated worker), then empty the <span>port message
                   1457:    queue</span> of the port that the worker's implicit port is
                   1458:    entangled with.</li>
                   1459: 
1.115     ihickson 1460:   </ol><h3 id="runtime-script-errors"><span class="secno">4.7 </span>Runtime script errors</h3><p>Whenever a runtime script error occurs in one of the worker's
1.81      ihickson 1461:   scripts, if the error did not occur while handling a previous script
1.123     ihickson 1462:   error, the user agent must <span>report the error</span> using the
                   1463:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's <code title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror"><a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onerror">onerror</a></code>
                   1464:   attribute.<p>For shared workers, if the error is still <i title="concept-error-nothandled">not handled</i> afterwards, or if
                   1465:   the error occured while handling a previous script error, the error
                   1466:   should be reported to the user.<p>For dedicated workers, if the error is still <i title="concept-error-nothandled">not handled</i> afterwards, or if
                   1467:   the error occured while handling a previous script error, the user
                   1468:   agent must <span>queue a task</span> to <a href="#fire-a-worker-error-event">fire a worker error
                   1469:   event</a> at the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object associated with the
                   1470:   worker.<p>When the user agent is to <dfn id="fire-a-worker-error-event">fire a worker error event</dfn> at
1.118     ihickson 1471:   a <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object, it must dispatch an event that uses
                   1472:   the <code><a href="#errorevent">ErrorEvent</a></code> interface, with the name <code title="event-error">error</code>, that doesn't bubble and is
1.115     ihickson 1473:   cancelable, with its <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-message"><a href="#dom-errorevent-message">message</a></code>, <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename"><a href="#dom-errorevent-filename">filename</a></code>, and <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno"><a href="#dom-errorevent-lineno">lineno</a></code> attributes set
1.81      ihickson 1474:   appropriately. The default action of this event depends on whether
1.115     ihickson 1475:   the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object is itself in a worker. If it is, and
1.81      ihickson 1476:   that worker is also a dedicated worker, then the user agent must
1.118     ihickson 1477:   again <span>queue a task</span> to <a href="#fire-a-worker-error-event">fire a worker error
                   1478:   event</a> at the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object associated with
                   1479:   <em>that</em> worker. Otherwise, then the error should be reported
                   1480:   to the user.<hr><pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="errorevent">ErrorEvent</dfn> : Event {
1.115     ihickson 1481:   readonly attribute DOMObject <a href="#dom-errorevent-message" title="dom-ErrorEvent-message">message</a>;
                   1482:   readonly attribute DOMObject <a href="#dom-errorevent-filename" title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename">filename</a>;
                   1483:   readonly attribute unsigned long <a href="#dom-errorevent-lineno" title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno">lineno</a>;
                   1484:   void <a href="#dom-errorevent-initerrorevent" title="dom-ErrorEvent-initErrorEvent">initErrorEvent</a>(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject messageArg, in DOMObject filenameArg, in unsigned long linenoArg);
                   1485:   void <a href="#dom-errorevent-initerroreventns" title="dom-ErrorEvent-initErrorEventNS">initErrorEventNS</a>(in DOMString namespaceURIArg, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject messageArg, in DOMObject filenameArg, in unsigned long linenoArg);
                   1486: };</pre><p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-initerrorevent" title="dom-ErrorEvent-initErrorEvent"><code>initErrorEvent()</code></dfn>
                   1487:   and <dfn id="dom-errorevent-initerroreventns" title="dom-ErrorEvent-initErrorEventNS"><code>initErrorEventNS()</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1488:   methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the
1.115     ihickson 1489:   similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. <a href="#references">[DOM3EVENTS]</a><p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-message" title="dom-ErrorEvent-message"><code>message</code></dfn>
                   1490:   attribute represents the error message.<p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-filename" title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename"><code>filename</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1491:   attribute represents the <span>absolute URL</span> of the script in
1.115     ihickson 1492:   which the error originally occured.<p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-lineno" title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno"><code>lineno</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1493:   attribute represents the line number where the error occured in the
1.115     ihickson 1494:   script.<h3 id="creating-workers"><span class="secno">4.8 </span>Creating workers</h3><h4 id="the-abstractworker-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.1 </span>The <code><a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a></code> abstract interface</h4><pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="abstractworker">AbstractWorker</dfn> {
                   1495:            attribute <span>EventListener</span> <a href="#handler-abstractworker-onerror" title="handler-AbstractWorker-onerror">onerror</a>;
1.123     ihickson 1496: <!-- v2-onclose           attribute <span>EventListener</span> <span title="handler-AbstractWorker-onclose">onclose</span>; -->
1.115     ihickson 1497: };</pre><p>Objects implementing the <code><a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a></code> interface
1.102     ihickson 1498:   must also implement the <code>EventTarget</code> interface.<p>The following are the <span>event handler attributes</span> (and their corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler event types</span>)
                   1499:   that must be supported, as DOM attributes, by objects implementing
1.115     ihickson 1500:   the <code><a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a></code> interface:<table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handler attributes">event handler attribute</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
                   1501:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-abstractworker-onerror" title="handler-AbstractWorker-onerror"><code>onerror</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-error">error</code>
1.123     ihickson 1502: <!-- v2-onclose    <tr><td><dfn title="handler-AbstractWorker-onclose"><code>onclose</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-close">close</code> -->
1.115     ihickson 1503:   </table><h4 id="dedicated-workers-and-the-worker-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> interface</h4><pre class="idl">[<a href="#dom-worker" title="dom-Worker">Constructor</a>(in DOMString scriptURL)]
                   1504: interface <dfn id="worker">Worker</dfn> : <a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a> {
                   1505:   void <a href="#dom-worker-terminate" title="dom-Worker-terminate">terminate</a>();
1.50      ihickson 1506: 
1.115     ihickson 1507:   void <a href="#dom-worker-postmessage" title="dom-Worker-postMessage">postMessage</a>(in any message, [Optional] in <span>MessagePortArray</span> ports);<!--
1.81      ihickson 1508:   <span>MessagePort</span> <span title="dom-Worker-startConversation">startConversation</span>(in any message);-->
1.115     ihickson 1509:            attribute <span>EventListener</span> <a href="#handler-worker-onmessage" title="handler-Worker-onmessage">onmessage</a>;
                   1510: };</pre><p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-terminate" title="dom-Worker-terminate"><code>terminate()</code></dfn> method,
                   1511:   when invoked, must cause the "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>"
1.81      ihickson 1512:   algorithm to be run on the worker with with the object is
1.115     ihickson 1513:   associated.<p><code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> objects act as if they had an implicit
1.81      ihickson 1514:   <code>MessagePort</code> associated with them. This port is part of
                   1515:   a channel that is set up when the worker is created, but it is not
                   1516:   exposed. This object must never be garbage collected before the
1.115     ihickson 1517:   <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object.<p>All messages received by that port must immediately be retargeted
                   1518:   at the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object.<p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-postmessage" title="dom-Worker-postMessage"><code>postMessage()</code></dfn><!--
1.64      ihickson 1519:   and <dfn
                   1520:   title="dom-Worker-startConversation"><code>startConversation()</code></dfn>-->
1.115     ihickson 1521:   method<!--s (startConversation)--> on <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> objects
1.81      ihickson 1522:   must act as if, when invoked, it<!--/they (startConversation)-->
                   1523:   immediately invoked the method of the same name on the port, with
1.102     ihickson 1524:   the same arguments, and returned the same return value.<p>The following are the <span>event handler attributes</span> (and their corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler event types</span>)
                   1525:   that must be supported, as DOM attributes, by objects implementing
1.115     ihickson 1526:   the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> interface:<table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handler attributes">event handler attribute</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
                   1527:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-worker-onmessage" title="handler-Worker-onmessage"><code>onmessage</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-message">message</code>
                   1528:   </table><hr><p>When the <dfn id="dom-worker" title="dom-Worker"><code>Worker(<var title="">scriptURL</var>)</code></dfn> constructor is invoked, the
1.81      ihickson 1529:   user agent must run the following steps:<ol><li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> the <var title="">scriptURL</var> argument.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1530: 
1.81      ihickson 1531:    <li><p>If this fails, throw a <code>SYNTAX_ERR</code>
                   1532:    exception.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1533: 
1.81      ihickson 1534:    <li><p>If the <span>origin</span> of the resulting <span>absolute
                   1535:    URL</span> is not the <span title="same origin">same</span> as the
1.123     ihickson 1536:    origin of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that
                   1537:    invoked the constructor, then throw a <span>security
                   1538:    exception</span>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1539: 
1.115     ihickson 1540:    <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 1541:    object</span>. Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be this
                   1542:    new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1543: 
1.115     ihickson 1544:    <li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object, associated with
1.81      ihickson 1545:    <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">worker</var> be this new object.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1546: 
1.81      ihickson 1547:    <li><p><span>Create a <code>MessagePort</code> object</span> owned
1.123     ihickson 1548:    by the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span> of
                   1549:    the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1550:    constructor. Let this be the <var title="">outside
1.81      ihickson 1551:    port</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1552: 
1.81      ihickson 1553:    <li><p>Associate the <var title="">outside port</var> with <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1554: 
1.81      ihickson 1555:    <li><p><span>Create a <code>MessagePort</code> object</span> owned
                   1556:    by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">inside port</var> be this new object.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1557: 
1.81      ihickson 1558:    <li><p>Associate <var title="">inside port</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1559: 
1.81      ihickson 1560:    <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var> and
                   1561:    <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1562: 
1.81      ihickson 1563:    <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var>, and run the following
                   1564:    steps asynchronously.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1565: 
1.126     ihickson 1566:    <li><p>Enable <var title="">inside port</var>'s <span>port message
1.81      ihickson 1567:    queue</span>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1568: 
1.126     ihickson 1569:    <li><p>Enable <var title="">outside port</var>'s <span>port message
1.81      ihickson 1570:    queue</span>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1571: 
                   1572:    <li>
1.51      ihickson 1573: 
1.123     ihickson 1574:     <p>Let <var title="">docs</var> be the <a href="#list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant
                   1575:     <code>Document</code> objects to add</a> given the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1576:     constructor.</p>
                   1577: 
                   1578:    </li>
                   1579: 
                   1580:    <li>
                   1581: 
                   1582:     <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   1583:     <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   1584:     worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   1585:     <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   1586: 
                   1587:    </li>
                   1588: 
                   1589:    <li>
                   1590: 
1.124     ihickson 1591:     <p>If the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span>
                   1592:     of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1593:     constructor is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. we
                   1594:     are creating a nested worker), add <var title="">worker global
                   1595:     scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the worker's workers</a> of the
                   1596:     <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object that is the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1597:     constructor.</p>
                   1598: 
                   1599:    </li>
                   1600: 
                   1601:    <li>
                   1602: 
1.115     ihickson 1603:     <p><a href="#run-a-worker">Run a worker</a> for the resulting <span>absolute
1.81      ihickson 1604:     URL</span>, with the <span>script browsing context</span> of the
                   1605:     script that invoked the method as the <var title="">owner browsing
                   1606:     context</var>, and with <var title="">worker global scope</var> as
                   1607:     the global scope.</p>
1.9       ihickson 1608: 
1.81      ihickson 1609:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1610: 
1.115     ihickson 1611:   </ol><h4 id="shared-workers-and-the-sharedworker-interface"><span class="secno">4.8.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> interface</h4><pre class="idl">[<a href="#dom-sharedworker" title="dom-SharedWorker">Constructor</a>(in DOMString scriptURL, in DOMString name)]
                   1612: interface <dfn id="sharedworker">SharedWorker</dfn> : <a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a> {
                   1613:   readonly attribute <span>MessagePort</span> <a href="#dom-sharedworker-port" title="dom-SharedWorker-port">port</a>;
                   1614: };</pre><p>The <dfn id="dom-sharedworker-port" title="dom-SharedWorker-port"><code>port</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1615:   attribute must return the value it was assigned by the object's
                   1616:   constructor. It represents the <code>MessagePort</code> for
1.115     ihickson 1617:   communicating with the shared worker.<p>When the <dfn id="dom-sharedworker" title="dom-SharedWorker"><code>SharedWorker(<var title="">scriptURL</var>, <var title="">name</var>)</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1618:   constructor is invoked, the user agent must run the following
                   1619:   steps:<ol><li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> the <var title="">scriptURL</var> argument.</li>
                   1620: 
                   1621:    <li><p>If this fails, throw a <code>SYNTAX_ERR</code>
                   1622:    exception.</li>
                   1623: 
                   1624:    <li><p>If the <span>origin</span> of the resulting <span>absolute
                   1625:    URL</span> is not the <span title="same origin">same</span> as the
                   1626:    origin of the script that invoked the constructor, then throw a
                   1627:    <span>security exception</span>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1628: 
                   1629:    <li>
                   1630: 
1.123     ihickson 1631:     <p>Let <var title="">docs</var> be the <a href="#list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant
                   1632:     <code>Document</code> objects to add</a> given the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1633:     constructor.</p>
                   1634: 
                   1635:    </li>
                   1636: 
                   1637:    <li>
                   1638: 
1.50      ihickson 1639:     <p>Execute the following substeps atomically:</p>
1.9       ihickson 1640: 
1.115     ihickson 1641:     <ol><li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object, which will
                   1642:      shortly be associated with a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   1643:      object. Let this <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object be <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1644: 
1.123     ihickson 1645:      <li><p><span>Create a <code>MessagePort</code> object</span>
                   1646:      owned by the <span title="script's global scope">global
                   1647:      scope</span> of the script that invoked the method. Let this be
                   1648:      the <var title="">outside port</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1649: 
1.115     ihickson 1650:      <li><p>Assign <var title="">outside port</var> to the <code title="dom-SharedWorker-port"><a href="#dom-sharedworker-port">port</a></code> attribute of <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1651: 
1.9       ihickson 1652:      <li>
                   1653: 
1.115     ihickson 1654:       <p>If there exists a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object
                   1655:       whose <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a>
                   1656:       flag is false, whose <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-name">name</code> attribute is
1.81      ihickson 1657:       exactly equal to the <var title="">name</var> argument, and
1.115     ihickson 1658:       whose <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location">location</a></code> attribute
1.81      ihickson 1659:       represents an <span>absolute URL</span> that has the <span>same
                   1660:       origin</span> as the resulting <span>absolute URL</span>, then
                   1661:       run these substeps:</p>
                   1662: 
                   1663:       <ol><li><p>Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be that
1.115     ihickson 1664:        <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1665: 
1.115     ihickson 1666:        <li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location">location</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 1667:        attribute represents an <span>absolute URL</span> that is not
                   1668:        exactly equal to the resulting <span>absolute URL</span>, then
                   1669:        throw a <code>URL_MISMATCH_ERR</code> exception and abort all
1.127     ihickson 1670:        these steps.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1671: 
                   1672:        <li><p>Associate <var title="">worker</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
                   1673: 
                   1674:        <li><p><span>Create a <code>MessagePort</code> object</span>
                   1675:        owned by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let this
                   1676:        be the <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
                   1677: 
                   1678:        <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var>
                   1679:        and <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
                   1680: 
                   1681:        <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var> and perform the next
                   1682:        step asynchronously.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1683: 
1.81      ihickson 1684:        <li><p>Create an event that uses the <code>MessageEvent</code>
1.115     ihickson 1685:        interface, with the name <code title="event-connect">connect</code>, which does not bubble, is
1.118     ihickson 1686:        not cancelable, has no default action, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-data">data</code> attribute whose value
                   1687:        is the empty string and has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-ports">ports</code> attribute whose
                   1688:        value is an array containing only the newly created port, and
                   1689:        <span>queue a task</span> to dispatch the event at <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
1.43      ihickson 1690: 
1.123     ihickson 1691:        <li>
                   1692: 
                   1693:         <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   1694:         <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   1695:         worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   1696:         <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   1697: 
                   1698:        </li>
                   1699: 
1.124     ihickson 1700:        <li>
                   1701: 
                   1702:         <p>If the <span title="script's global scope">global
                   1703:         scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
                   1704:         that invoked the constructor is a
                   1705:         <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, add <var title="">worker global scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the
                   1706:         worker's workers</a> of the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   1707:         object that is the <span title="script's global scope">global
                   1708:         scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
                   1709:         that invoked the constructor.</p>
                   1710: 
                   1711:        </li>
                   1712: 
1.81      ihickson 1713:        <li><p>Abort all these steps.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1714: 
1.81      ihickson 1715:       </ol></li>
1.9       ihickson 1716: 
1.115     ihickson 1717:      <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 1718:      object</span>. Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be
                   1719:      this new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1720: 
1.81      ihickson 1721:      <li><p>Associate <var title="">worker</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1722: 
1.115     ihickson 1723:      <li><p>Set the <code title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name"><a href="#dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name">name</a></code> attribute of
1.81      ihickson 1724:      <var title="">worker global scope</var> to <var title="">name</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1725: 
1.81      ihickson 1726:      <li><p><span>Create a <code>MessagePort</code> object</span>
                   1727:      owned by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">inside port</var> be this new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1728: 
1.81      ihickson 1729:      <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var> and
                   1730:      <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1731: 
1.81      ihickson 1732:     </ol></li>
1.28      ihickson 1733: 
1.123     ihickson 1734:    <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var> and perform the remaining
                   1735:    steps asynchronously.</li>
1.18      ihickson 1736: 
1.81      ihickson 1737:    <li><p>Create an event that uses the <code>MessageEvent</code>
1.118     ihickson 1738:    interface, with the name <code title="event-connect">connect</code>, which does not bubble, is not
1.115     ihickson 1739:    cancelable, has no default action, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-data">data</code> attribute whose value is
1.118     ihickson 1740:    the empty string and has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-ports">ports</code> attribute whose value
                   1741:    is an array containing only the newly created port, and <span>queue
                   1742:    a task</span> to dispatch the event at <var title="">worker global
                   1743:    scope</var>.</li>
1.26      ihickson 1744: 
                   1745:    <li>
1.46      ihickson 1746: 
1.123     ihickson 1747:     <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   1748:     <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   1749:     worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   1750:     <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   1751: 
                   1752:    </li>
                   1753: 
                   1754:    <li>
                   1755: 
1.124     ihickson 1756:     <p>If the <span title="script's global scope">global scope</span>
                   1757:     of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1758:     constructor is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, add <var title="">worker global scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the
                   1759:     worker's workers</a> of the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   1760:     object that is the <span title="script's global scope">global
                   1761:     scope</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
                   1762:     that invoked the constructor.</p>
                   1763: 
                   1764:    </li>
                   1765: 
                   1766:    <li>
                   1767: 
1.115     ihickson 1768:     <p><a href="#run-a-worker">Run a worker</a> for the resulting <span>absolute
1.81      ihickson 1769:     URL</span>, with the <span>script browsing context</span> of the
                   1770:     script that invoked the method as the <var title="">owner browsing
                   1771:     context</var>, and with <var title="">worker global scope</var> as
                   1772:     the global scope.</p>
1.26      ihickson 1773: 
1.60      ihickson 1774:    </li>
1.81      ihickson 1775: 
1.115     ihickson 1776:   </ol><h2 id="apis-available-to-workers"><span class="secno">5 </span>APIs available to workers</h2><!-- the XXX below is for collapsing this interface onto WorkerGlobalScope so it looks like just one interface - the inheritance is a spec fiction only --><pre class="idl">[NoInterfaceObject, ImplementedOn=WorkerGlobalScope, XXX] interface <dfn id="workerutils">WorkerUtils</dfn> {
                   1777:   void <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts">importScripts</a>([Variadic] in DOMString urls);
                   1778:   readonly attribute <a href="#worker-navigator" title="worker-Navigator">Navigator</a> <a href="#dom-worker-navigator" title="dom-worker-navigator">navigator</a>;
                   1779:   <span>Database</span> <span title="dom-opendatabase">openDatabase</span>(in DOMString name, in DOMString version, in DOMString displayName, in unsigned long estimatedSize);
                   1780:   <span>DatabaseSync</span> <span title="dom-opendatabase-sync">openDatabaseSync</span>(in DOMString name, in DOMString version, in DOMString displayName, in unsigned long estimatedSize);
                   1781: };</pre><p>Objects that implement the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   1782:   interface must also implement the <code><a href="#workerutils">WorkerUtils</a></code>
                   1783:   interface.<p>Objects that implement the <code><a href="#workerutils">WorkerUtils</a></code> interface
1.81      ihickson 1784:   must also implement the <code>WindowTimers</code> interface. (This
                   1785:   interface provides the <code title="">setTimeout()</code> method and
1.104     ihickson 1786:   its friends.)</p><!-- XXX ref --><!-- XXX ApplicationCache --><!-- XXX debugging: void log(in DOMString s); // log to console --><hr><p>The DOM APIs (<code>Node</code> objects, <code>Document</code>
1.81      ihickson 1787:   objects, etc) are not available to workers in this version of this
1.115     ihickson 1788:   specification.<h3 id="importing-scripts-and-libraries"><span class="secno">5.1 </span>Importing scripts and libraries</h3><p>When a script invokes the <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts"><code>importScripts(<var title="">urls</var>)</code></dfn> method on a
                   1789:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, the user agent must run the
1.81      ihickson 1790:   following steps:<ol><li><p>If there are no arguments, return without doing
                   1791:    anything. Abort these steps.</li>
                   1792: 
                   1793:    <li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> each
                   1794:    argument.</li>
                   1795: 
                   1796:    <li><p>If any fail, throw a <code>SYNTAX_ERR</code>
                   1797:    exception.</li>
                   1798: 
                   1799: <!--
1.67      ihickson 1800:    <li><p>If any of the resulting <span title="absolute URL">absolute
                   1801:    URLs</span> have an <span>origin</span> that is not the <span
                   1802:    title="same origin">same</span> as the origin of the script that
                   1803:    invoked the method, then throw a <span>security
                   1804:    exception</span>.</p></li>
                   1805: -->
1.26      ihickson 1806: 
                   1807:    <li>
1.81      ihickson 1808: 
1.45      ihickson 1809:     <p>Attempt to <span>fetch</span> each resource identified by the
1.81      ihickson 1810:     resulting <span title="absolute URLs">absolute URL</span>.</p>
                   1811: 
                   1812:    </li>
1.26      ihickson 1813: 
                   1814:    <li>
                   1815: 
1.81      ihickson 1816:     <p>For each argument in turn, in the order given, starting with
                   1817:     the first one, run these substeps:</p>
1.26      ihickson 1818: 
1.81      ihickson 1819:     <ol><li>
1.26      ihickson 1820: 
1.81      ihickson 1821:       <p>Wait for the fetching attempt for the corresponding resource
                   1822:       to complete.</p>
1.60      ihickson 1823: 
1.81      ihickson 1824:       <p>If the fetching attempt failed, throw a
                   1825:       <code>NETWORK_ERR</code> exception and abort all these
                   1826:       steps.</p>
1.45      ihickson 1827: 
1.115     ihickson 1828:       <p>If the attempt succeeds, then <a href="#decode-a-script-resource" title="decode a script
1.85      ihickson 1829:       resource">decode the script resource</a> to obtain its <var title="">source</var>.</p>
                   1830: 
                   1831:       <p>Let <var title="">language</var> be JavaScript.</p>
1.61      ihickson 1832: 
1.115     ihickson 1833:       <p class="note">As with the worker's script, the script here is
1.81      ihickson 1834:       always assumed to be JavaScript, regardless of the MIME
                   1835:       type.</p> <!-- XXX -->
1.61      ihickson 1836: 
1.81      ihickson 1837:      </li>
1.26      ihickson 1838: 
1.81      ihickson 1839:      <li>
1.26      ihickson 1840: 
1.81      ihickson 1841:       <p><span>Create a script</span>, using <var title="">source</var> as the script source and <var title="">language</var> as the scripting language, using the
                   1842:       same global object, browsing context, character encoding, base
1.115     ihickson 1843:       URL, and script group as the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that was created by the
                   1844:       worker's <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1845: 
1.115     ihickson 1846:       <p>Let the newly created <span title="concept-script">script</span> run until it either
1.81      ihickson 1847:       returns, fails to parse, fails to catch an exception, or gets
1.115     ihickson 1848:       prematurely aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or
                   1849:       "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithms defined above.</p>
1.26      ihickson 1850: 
1.81      ihickson 1851:       <p>If it failed to parse, then throw a
                   1852:       <code>SyntaxError</code><!-- XXX ref? --> exception and abort
                   1853:       all these steps.</p>
1.63      ihickson 1854: 
1.81      ihickson 1855:       <p>If an exception was raised or if the script was prematurely
                   1856:       aborted, then abort all these steps, letting the exception or
                   1857:       aborting continue to be processed by the script that called the
1.115     ihickson 1858:       <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts">importScripts()</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 1859:       method.</p>
                   1860: 
1.115     ihickson 1861:       <p>If the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a
1.81      ihickson 1862:       worker</a>" algorithms abort the script then abort all these
                   1863:       steps.</p>
                   1864: 
                   1865:      </li>
                   1866: 
                   1867:     </ol></li>
                   1868: 
1.115     ihickson 1869:   </ol><h3 id="the-navigator-object"><span class="secno">5.2 </span>The <code title="worker-Navigator"><a href="#worker-navigator">Navigator</a></code> object</h3><p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-navigator" title="dom-worker-navigator"><code>navigator</code></dfn> attribute
                   1870:   of the <code><a href="#workerutils">WorkerUtils</a></code> interface must return an instance of
                   1871:   the <code title="worker-Navigator"><a href="#worker-navigator">Navigator</a></code> interface, which
1.93      ihickson 1872:   represents the identity and state of the user agent (the
1.115     ihickson 1873:   client):<pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="worker-navigator" title="worker-Navigator">Navigator</dfn> {
1.81      ihickson 1874:   // objects implementing this interface also implement the interfaces listed below
1.115     ihickson 1875: };</pre><p>Objects implementing the <code title="worker-Navigator"><a href="#worker-navigator">Navigator</a></code> interface must also
1.93      ihickson 1876:   implement the <span>NavigatorID</span> and
1.81      ihickson 1877:   <span>NavigatorOnLine</span> interfaces specified in the HTML5
1.115     ihickson 1878:   specification. <a href="#references">[HTML5]</a><p class="note">The <code title="worker-Navigator"><a href="#worker-navigator">Navigator</a></code>
1.93      ihickson 1879:   interface defined in this specification is different than the one
1.115     ihickson 1880:   defined in the HTML5 specification.<h3 id="apis-defined-in-other-specifications"><span class="secno">5.3 </span>APIs defined in other specifications</h3><p>The <code title="dom-opendatabase">openDatabase()</code> and
                   1881:   <code title="dom-opendatabase-sync">openDatabaseSync()</code>
                   1882:   methods are defined in the Web Storage specification. <a href="#references">[WEBSTORAGE]</a><h3 id="interface-objects-and-constructors"><span class="secno">5.4 </span>Interface objects and constructors</h3><p>There must be no interface objects and constructors available in
1.81      ihickson 1883:   the global scope of scripts whose <span>script execution
1.115     ihickson 1884:   context</span> is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object except for
1.81      ihickson 1885:   the following:<ul><li><p><code>XMLHttpRequest</code> and all interface objects and
                   1886:    constructors defined by the XMLHttpRequest specifications, except
                   1887:    that the <span>document response entity body</span> must always be
1.115     ihickson 1888:    null. <a href="#references">[XHR]</a></li>
1.81      ihickson 1889: 
                   1890:    <li><p>The <code>WebSocket</code> interface object and
1.115     ihickson 1891:    constructor. <a href="#references">[WEBSOCKET]</a></li>
1.81      ihickson 1892: 
1.119     ihickson 1893:    <li><p>The <code>EventSource</code> interface object and
                   1894:    constructor. <a href="#references">[EVENTSOURCE]</a></li>
                   1895: 
1.81      ihickson 1896:    <li><p>The <code>MessageChannel</code> interface object and
1.115     ihickson 1897:    constructor. <a href="#references">[HTML5]</a></li>
1.81      ihickson 1898: 
1.115     ihickson 1899:    <li><p>The <code title="dom-Worker"><a href="#dom-worker">Worker()</a></code> and <code title="dom-SharedWorker"><a href="#dom-sharedworker">SharedWorker(<var title="">url</var>)</a></code> constructors.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1900: 
1.115     ihickson 1901:   </ul><h3 id="worker-locations"><span class="secno">5.5 </span>Worker locations</h3><pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="workerlocation">WorkerLocation</dfn> {
                   1902:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-href" title="dom-WorkerLocation-href">href</a>;
                   1903:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-protocol" title="dom-WorkerLocation-protocol">protocol</a>;
                   1904:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-host" title="dom-WorkerLocation-host">host</a>;
                   1905:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-hostname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hostname">hostname</a>;
                   1906:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-port" title="dom-WorkerLocation-port">port</a>;
                   1907:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-pathname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-pathname">pathname</a>;
                   1908:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-search" title="dom-WorkerLocation-search">search</a>;
                   1909:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-hash" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hash">hash</a>;
                   1910: };</pre><p>A <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> object represents an <span>absolute
                   1911:   URL</span> set at its creation.<p>The <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-href" title="dom-WorkerLocation-href"><code>href</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1912:   attribute must return the <span>absolute URL</span> that the object
1.115     ihickson 1913:   represents.<p>The <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> interface also has the complement
                   1914:   of <span>URL decomposition attributes</span>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-protocol" title="dom-WorkerLocation-protocol"><code>protocol</code></dfn>,
                   1915:   <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-host" title="dom-WorkerLocation-host"><code>host</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-port" title="dom-WorkerLocation-port"><code>port</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-hostname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hostname"><code>hostname</code></dfn>,
                   1916:   <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-pathname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-pathname"><code>pathname</code></dfn>,
                   1917:   <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-search" title="dom-WorkerLocation-search"><code>search</code></dfn>,
                   1918:   and <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-hash" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hash"><code>hash</code></dfn>. These must
1.81      ihickson 1919:   follow the rules given for URL decomposition attributes, with the
1.115     ihickson 1920:   <span title="concept-uda-input">input</span> being the
1.81      ihickson 1921:   <span>absolute URL</span> that the object represents (same as the
1.115     ihickson 1922:   <code title="dom-WorkerLocation-href"><a href="#dom-workerlocation-href">href</a></code> attribute), and
                   1923:   the <span title="concept-uda-setter">common setter action</span>
                   1924:   being a no-op, since the attributes are defined to be readonly. <a href="#references">[HTML5]</a><h2 class="no-num" id="references">References</h2><p class="big-issue">This section will be written in a future
                   1925:   draft.<!--XXX--><h2 class="no-num" id="acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</h2><!-- ACKS --><p>Thanks to
1.81      ihickson 1926: 
                   1927:   Aaron Boodman,
                   1928:   &#1040;&#1083;&#1077;&#1082;&#1089;&#1077;&#1081; &#1055;&#1088;&#1086;&#1089;&#1082;&#1091;&#1088;&#1103;&#1082;&#1086;&#1074; (Alexey Proskuryakov),
                   1929:   Anne van Kesteren,
                   1930:   Ben Turner,
                   1931:   Dmitry Titov,
1.96      ihickson 1932:   Drew Wilson,
1.97      ihickson 1933:   Jeremy Orlow,
1.81      ihickson 1934:   Jonas Sicking,
                   1935:   Justin James,
                   1936:   Kevin Hakanson,
                   1937:   Maciej Stachowiak,
                   1938:   Michael Nordman,
                   1939:   Mike Smith,
                   1940: 
                   1941:   and
                   1942: 
                   1943:   Philip Taylor
                   1944: 
                   1945:   for their useful and substantial comments.<p>Huge thanks to the whole Gears team, who pioneered this
                   1946:   technology and whose experience has been a huge influence on this
                   1947:   specification.

Webmaster